rec'd a C and D email today ...

[spidergoat]

rec'd today via email. from a big international bank in france - fil banque.

(ignore the spaces - they are to keep from this thread showing up on a search).

they own fil banque (dot) com.

about a year ago I reg'd a bunch of .com and .ca generic banking terms in french and english. one was (remember - ignore the spaces) sans fil banque (dot) com. I didn't even know about fil banque, I just have a bunch of wireless(sans fil)/mobile/online(en ligne) names in .ca and .com. They are all just parked at sedo w/ just a trickle of traffic w/ hopefully development the plan down the road. They have sent me a C&D from their law firm re: sans fil banque (dot) com. as far as I am concerned they don't have a leg to stand on, as they don't have sans fil (wireless) in any of their trademarks, and wireless / mobile / online banking is about generic and common use as they get.

I have already emailed back with a clear indication of why there is absolutely no infringement and no bad faith on my part. Any advice as to next steps?

Cheers and thanks in advance!

 

[Theo]

Very interesting case.

 

[spidergoat]

Indeed. I definitely wasn't worried about any TM when I registered all of these. I had never even heard of fil banque until their lawyer emailed. I own both sans fil banque (dot) com and banque sans fil (dot) com (ignore spaces) along with about 20 other permutations of mobile/wireless/online banking terms in english and french for both .com and .ca. So pretty hard to argue I was targeting them (which I would never do anyway). Also I would think that 'sans fil' (wireless) is about as far from their trademarked term 'fil' (wire) as you can get. In fact, they are the exact opposite. They have no marks with anything to do with 'sans fil' (wireless) and would be pretty hard to argue that people would get confused between wire and wireless in this day and age.

And the term wireless banking would have to be considered a generic common use term now, internationally. No way it can be trademarked. It absolutely describes the activity. Would be like trying to trademark 'frozen ice cream'. Good luck.

 

[Tia Wood]

What does fil banque mean in English?

 

[Bender]

sans fil= wireless

 

[spidergoat]

fil means wire I guess ...

wire (fil) banking (banque) = not common usage so trademark makes sense.

wireless (sans fil) banking (banque) = common usage (number of banks in canada have a service termed exactly that and no trademark) and simply describes an activity or service thus means no trademark possible.

I may even have a very good case for reverse domain hijacking here.