Discussion:
What is the name of your state? Texas
Here is my scenario:
If I sent an email or placed an ad or a message involving... let's say MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer). Which I'm sure MCSE is trademarked, would this be a violation?
For example:
Dear MCSE Certified,
or something along those lines...
Thanks.
Answer:
If you are using the trademark in a purely descriptive sense, then that is a "fair use" under Trademark law. So it's okay to use a trademark to describe something -- there is no other way to describe someone as a Mircosoft Certified Engineer without saying "Microsoft Certified Engineer" -- it is not okay to use the trademark in such a way as to imply the you are Microsoft, or authorized by Microsoft, or are using the Microsoft name to get attention, etc.
Answer:
divgradcurl,
I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question and help me out.
I understand all of what you wrote, then your last sentence kind of threw me off, the statement: "or using the the Microsoft name to get attention". Well since I would be using MCSE simply to describe something, I'd think that'd it fall under "fair use". However, this would also be using MCSE to catch attention as well, correct? Seems like that kind of contradicts itself...
Thanks.
Answer:
Sorry, what I meant was that if you are using the Microsoft trademark SOLELY to attract attention -- like using to point to a porn site or something -- that would likely be a trademark infringement. An add with big letters saying MCSE at the top would probably be okay if you are advertising jobs that require an MCSE; you are using the big letters to get attention, yes, but the use is "descriptive -- you need an MCSE for the job. On the other hand, it would not be okay if you were using such an add to sell, say, computer hardware -- here, you are simply using the letters to grab the attention of a certain "class" of consumers -- this would be illegal misappropriation or dilution under Trademark laws.
Answer:
Hmm...
Well I think my situation could possibly go either way, lol. Guess I'll just have to wait a little while and see if they decide to actually do anything...
Thanks for you help.