Re: Expedia Dot Com Claims Exclusive Rights

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On 10/27/02, Jeff S wrote:
> My company's name is Expedia Transportation Consultants. We
> are incorporated in the state of New York and operate as a
> freight forwarder shipping cargo worldwide. Expedia Dot Com
> the travel people contacted me and claim they own the
> exclusive rights to the word Expedia and are demanding I
> change my company name immediatly. Any idea's? Any help is
> greatly appreciated.

Do you have a federally registered service mark (it's
technically not a trademark)? What was the date of first use
of your service mark? When was the date of first use in
"interstate commerce," e.g. business with a client out of
state (or country), advertising out of state, etc.? Have you
been using the service mark continuously since that time?

Expedia.com has a federal service mark on expedia.com, and
they claim the following first use dates:

FIRST USE: 19961022. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19961022

If you can show you had first and continuous use in interstate
commerce before they did, it's possible you could prevail on
the federal trademark issue. I imagine if you had a superior
claim to Expedia, they'd be quite eager to deal with you for
that right. However, their trademark firm has already
completed the search and succeeded in getting the registration
for the mark. If their claim is superior to yours, not only
can they shut you down, but to protect the mark they are
obligated to do this. If that's the case you will have to
select another name. Either way a court finds, there could
also be damages involved.

My advice is to seek an attorney unless you don't feel you
have a strong case. You may want to see an attorney to
determine if you have a strong case. In other words, this is
not legal advice, just speculation on my part. Maybe an IP
law practitioner can offer some deeper insight here.

Expedia.com federal trademark registration

Re: Expedia Dot Com Claims Exclusive Rights, 10/27/02, by btr.

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