Yeah i did pick up on that, they do plainly say as much on Caterpillar’s tweets but they say it in such a non-chalant fashion. It’s ridiculous and i really hope you guys are able to fight this out and get remuneration for the legal expenses
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In fact, the entire “cat” species will have to be renamed to something else. I thought “flaming asshole” would be a good choice, but apparently Caterpillar Corp. has that one locked up too.
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Paging Dr. Streisand…
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NEWSFLASH! Caterpillar Inc has asked all humane societies to quit allowing the adoption of “cats” until they change their name. Suggestions include renaming the designation of cat to something less confusing like “Snicklefritz” or “GooglieMooglie’s” (we’re big fans of GooglieMooglie’s here). Caterpillar Inc doesn’t really care what the new designation is so long as we quit referring to “cats” as “cats” as it’s been shown that some humane societies sell shirts for fundraising that often have the word cat on it which as we can all agree is super duper confusing for our lawyers.
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This is so obviously, inarguably utter bullshit that I wonder what on earth their motivation could be. What do they have to gain aside from bad publicity? This is simply being evil for the sake of being evil.
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IANAL: but know a few in this line. Cat DOES have a duty to go after anything even remotely related or potentially lose the mark. My impression is the general method is:
- send C&D letter, threaten, bluster, etc.
- be willing to let it go to court, because deep pockets
- fully expect to lose the case, BUT keep their mark, and be able to say to the trademark office “hey! We’re out here defending this.”
If they’re NOT then a knockoff company can come in, make Cat Logo hats, and say “hey, they’re not out there defending this, so it must be abandoned.”
Am I playing devil’s advocate here if I suggest renaming “cats” as “assholes”?
I’m only thinking about it after coming home today to a wrecked apartment, including my favorite drinking mug knocked off the shelf into the litter box.
But…ya know, it would work for Caterpillar, too.
EDIT: Ah, @larrycovey thought of it, too. Jinx, buy me a cat…I mean, a Coke.
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They totally do not. They only need to protect the mark from actual appropriation. The Cat and Cloud mark neither looks nor sounds like “CAT”, nor does it look like the distinctive CAT wordmark, nor are they in the same business. There is no likelihood of confusion. This comes off like an agency or legal department trying to justify its budget by reflexively attacking businesses.
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This isn’t even remotely related. If either the company or the specific hat were just “Cat”, it would seem unfair but at least understandable from the viewpoint of a heartless lawyer. But “Cat and Cloud Coffee” has no relation whatsoever. This isn’t the action of an overzealous lawyer, it’s the action of a malfunctioning robot. If Caterpillar needs to go after anything with the letters “c-a-t” regardless of context or meaning, there’s probably several million other businesses they should also be harassing right now.
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Again the legal department writing checks that the PR department can’t cash
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I suggest penalties of (lawyer fees/gross revenues of smaller firm) x gross revenues of larger firm.
Ok I know such a scheme would be abused beyond belief but a bullying penalty should exist for larger entities that pursue such ridiculous trademark cases.
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“CAT Scan”
“The Purring Cat”
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I knew a gay guy who just had to have his Chik-Fil-A.
Note: The link moist_ posted just says “This search session has expired” for me. I did my own search and found the following trademarks appear to be for the word CAT by itself:
serial number 77184659
serial number 75621863
serial number 73392831
(Note: The search system uses a strange “login/logout” memory that can cause the address of your search results to expire. I attempted to make handcrafted permalinks above, but in case they fail, you can search for the serial numbers shown above.)
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Sounds like Caterpillar hired a new young lawyer who wants to prove himself
Would be easier to type “it’s”, eh?
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Yea Caterpillar licenses their logo for lots of stuff, I used to have some poorly made-in-China boots with the “CAT” branding.
I hope the trademark office lets Cat & Cloud operate a perfectly reasonable business or I’m going to trademark the letter “C” on footwear and sent Caterpillar some strongly worded lawyer-sounding letters.
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I have a nagging memory that they used to be called CaterPillar ™ tractors. This suggests that the original company name may not be “Caterpillar” at all.
I don’t know if this is any use as a defence. Just stirring the pot, me.
At least it landed in the litter. You can sterilize it, but putting it back together would be harder if the cat had decided she didn’t want to pee in it but instead chase sharp shards of ceramic.
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