[Commons-Law] Fwd: <nettime> Aveda - Trademark on "Indigenous"

[Shamnad Basheer]

Apologies for waking up a little too late on this. Not sure if anyone has responded to this-if so, apologies for the repetition:
 
1. "INDIGENOUS" used in relation to cosmetics etc seems, at best to be a descriptive term-more so, when one takes a look at their website and finds that most products seem to be based on some sort of native  knowledge/tradition.
 
2. Being a descriptive term, "INDIGENOUS" cannot acquire the status of a trademark, till such time as it has been used so extensively as to be vested with a "secondary meaning"-i.e. consumers begin to connect these goods to the organisation that actually sells them. 
 
3. I notice that at least in so far as the US applications are concerned, the date of first use is mid 2002. Unless massive amounts of money have been pumped into advertising and educating the consumer that "INDIGENOUS" denotes goods emanating from this one corporation, it seems unlikely that the mark would have acquired any sort of  secondary meaning in so short a while.  
 
4. The mark has been registered in different countries and any potential challenge would have to be based on the separate laws of these countries. I notice that the mark has already been registered in Canada-opposition in such a case, would, I fear be rather difficult (and may not even be possible in some cases). On the other hand, in the US, where some of these applications are still pending, it may be easier to oppose at this early stage. 
 
4. I'm not aware of any international regulation/norm that would govern this situation. (am not sure if one can mount a challenge based on the fact that this term denotes a certain class of people who may have special rights under international norms-and therefore the exploitation of  this term by a commerical venture ought to be prohibited).
 
regards-shamnad 

Monica Narula <monica at sarai.net> wrote:
How in the world can Aveda do this??!! ANd i mean that not 
rhetorically, but in real terms. This is tantamount to my 
trademarking 'installation'!!

best
M

>Delivered-To: monica at sarai.net
>From: "nettime's word police" 
>Subject: Aveda - Trademark on "Indigenous"
>Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 12:44:10 +0200
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>-----Original Message-----
>From: ------x-----
>Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2003 1:21 AM
>Subject: Aveda - Trademark on "Indigenous"
>To: -----x------
>
>
>Good morning colleagues,
>
><...>
>
>I came across something that I found quite disturbing and I am hoping
>that you may be able to assist me.
>
>It appears that Aveda Corporation has registered a trademark for the
>term "Indigenous" in a number of jurisdictions including U.S., Canada,
>Australia, NZ and Japan. I am hoping that one of you might be able to
>provide me with an opinion on whether the trademark registrations below
>may be in contravention of any international or domestic trademark
>laws.
>
>Please follow the following links:
>
>http://www.aveda.com/protect/we/indigenous.asp
>
>http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/1028/trdp102896100e.html
>
>http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=fu1bma.2.1
>
>http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/atmoss/falcon_details.show_tm_details?p_tm_number=806883&p_search_no=2&p_ExtDisp=D&p_detail=QUICK&p_rec_no=1&p_r
>ec_all=11
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Monica Narula
Sarai:The New Media Initiative
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054
www.sarai.net
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