The bane of many a startup and established company alike, trademark trolls now have their sights set on the auto industry.
Portage, Ind.-based Trademark King, Inc. began filing trademark protection claims on 155 names and domains around Thanksgiving of last year, AutoGuide reports. The claims include everything from “Selection Sunday” and “Warren Buffet,” to “Porsche.com” and “Kia.com.”
According to the filings, the trademark troll is staking its claim to these names for “brand development and evaluation services in the field of trademarks, trade names, and domain names,” as well as “creating trademarks for others.” For the right price, however, the company would sell or lease the name “to anyone in the world for a legal business activity.”
And how much did Douglas LeHockey, the owner of Trademark King – the company and the trademark – pay for this trouble? According to Domain Name Wire, $50,000.
When interviewed by the publication about another trademark filing related to an established domain name, LeHockey said it didn’t matter who had the domain name first, but who filed the trademark first, adding he would have his lawyer send a cease-and-desist to the domain owner.
[Photo credit: ngader/Flickr/CC BY 2.0]
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