[conspire] Trademark law (was: In case we were not already clear about was NextDoor, Inc. is)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> I expect you know a lot more about trademark law than any of the main
> characters in the story.  The guy promoting the white T shirts has a
> long history of crazy provocative actions.

He's possibly a sufferer of mental illness, whereas the DJs are doing
classic street theatre.  The only thing of substance on _their_ part is
that they (or someone) spent $350 (up from $330 when I was last involved
in a supposed trademark dispute) on an application fee[1], and USPTO
will get to keep it.  I guess as a taxpayer, I appreciate the latter.

The DJs may have known that they were throwing away $350 for the PR and
amusement potential, or they may have been ignorant.  There has always
been a lot of ignorance and confusion and stubborn misconceptions about
trademarks.

> He doesn't seem to listen to his lawyers on this or any other matter. 
> I don't see him challenging the trademark application.

It actually doesn't make any difference.  It's possible that the USPTO 
examiner might approve it on grounds of sloppy, expedited workflow 
(because, ever since the Reagan Administration, trademark and patent
examiners get rated on their speed of throughput rather than the quality
of their work), but any such registered trademark is inherently a paper
tiger (because it is against explicit USPTO policy) and will get
invalidated the first time it comes up in court.

Also, if the alleged owners of the applied-for trademark consider
bringing enforcement litigation, any competent trademark attorney will
tell them it's a losing case based on an inherently non-valid trademark.

I have no idea who "Harry on TMZ" is, but you don't need to elaborate if 
you don't feel like it.

[1] $350 application fee for a US _registered_ mark that would extend
for the following decade.  Common law trademarks, by contrast, get
established for free (and don't expire) through mere usage in commerce,
but have lesser scope and enforcement powers.