Possible to copyright or trademark a month?

[AndreBell]

California.

Is this threatening email valid? Do they really own the national month of "x"?

--- begin email ---

"thank you for responding to our request. please be advised that we have contacted the Santa Maria police and filed a complaint with the federal Internet Crimes Task Force at their suggestion. xxxxxx Corp. is the originator and owner of National xx Month in August and any use of that property requires our permission. The registration requirements are clearly visible at our site and, frankly, very minimal in order to allow widespread utilization. We have also been open to all manner of partnerships with businesses and organizations as long as they accept and adhere to the national theme.

On Google, you have listed several of your web pages with the tag line "National xx Month" diverting potential viewers from our site.

The following press release is still alive on PRZoom. Contrary to your message, these pages and press release are still alive. Nothing less than complete eradication of any references to National xx Month will be sufficient. We will also need your physical address in order to bring civil legal action against you and your companies. if these pages are not elminated, we will ask GoDaddy and PRZoom to take your sites down.”

--- end email ---

I'm no ip lawyer, so I'm in no position to judge what's legal and what isn't. I do know he seems to think he owns the phrase "national xxxx xxxx month in august".

I do NOT have any content on any of my websites mentioning "national xxxx xxxx month in august" nor have i ever mentioned "national xxxx xxxx month in august" in any communication online or offline. However, I did write a free article about a topic that is similar. It encouraged others to give something of themselves in support of national xxx month. It is close to what he claims, but isn't the same. My material came from public sources, i.e. the US Census and a public events guide published by Mcgraw Hill.

Despite telling him my material came from public sources, he followed up with the above threatening email.

Oh, yesterday I sent a request to przoom to remove the news release the dude mentioned, but przoom responded that there's a fee for removal. So I'm thinking of just leaving it since I have not nor have I ever mentioned "national xxxx xxxx month in august". Maybe I will modify it to have exactly the same wording as McGraw Hill.

Maybe that will settle this? Or can he still legally broadly claim ownership of even everything remotely mentioning the month? Is that even possible?

Thanks.

Andre

PS: Feel free to pm me and I will give full details of the phrase, if you are an attorney and if the additional details might help clarify this issue.

Thanks again.

[quincy]

Ummm, what does your post have to do with Buying & Selling a Home??

No one can copyright a month. You could check at [url]www.uspto.gov[/url] to see if this particular xxxxx month that they are claiming to have trademarked is, in fact, trademarked. If the xxxxx month's name is distinctive and identifies a product, and your free article causes some confusion among consumers or your article refers to a competing product or business, it is a possibility you could be infringing. You should not have to pay to have anything removed, however, and I would not provide them with your address at this time.

Wait for responses from others.

[AndreBell]

Thanks for the reply and for the [url]www.uspto.gov[/url] info. Nothing shows in there for the phrase they are claiming ownership of. Either that or I'm searching incorrectly.

Gives me a measure of peace of mind 'cause this had me stumped. Will keep digging to see if I overlooked anything.

No clue how my post ended up here. I first searched all posts and then read through INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY & INTERNET LAW / Copyrights & Trademarks. That's where I thought I clicked 'start a new thread'. No clue how this ended up here.

Is there any way a mod can move the post to the correct thread?

tia to mods too.

Andre
PS: Your reply gave me an idea...so I also searched [url]http://www.copyright.gov/records/[/url]
Nothing 'officially' there either. but of cousre, a work doesn't have to be officially registered to gain protection. I wonder if a phrase can be called intellectual property though without some filing. Not an attorney so i have no clue. And that may be another issue altogether. I think the real issue here is whether or not he can legally claim ownership to a national monthly observance of a public group. Too bad I can't post the specifics in the forum to get an opinion on that :-|

[quincy]

You know, Andre, I may have steered you wrong, here.

In your posts I totally overlooked the word "National" when I gave you the answer about months and copyrights and trademarks. While it is true that someone cannot copyright or trademark the month, say, of August, there are "National" months that do not need to be copyrighted or trademarked if they have been proclaimed a month, and are recognized as a month, to honor someone or something. For instance, you have Black History Month in February, Women's History Month in March, National Poetry Month in April and there is a National Hispanic Heritage Month and a National Safety Month....and on and on.

If you were to issue a press release saying that this April everyone should honor all poets nationally by taking a poet to lunch, or something, and you call it the National Take-a-Poet-to-Lunch month, it may not be something the National Poetry Month people support as a way to honor poets, and there could be confusion. The National Poetry Month people may have lined up an agenda for April that has nothing to do with taking a poet to lunch, and they may think that you're "infringing" on their theme of "Buy a Poetry Book for Your Child".

This is a really poor example of what I am trying to illustrate, so sorry, but I think that is what the email you received may be concerned with. You may, in fact, need the permission of this "national" group in order to use "their" month to promote an event. The legal claim to the month does not come from a copyright or a trademark, therefore, but from a national proclamation.

[nextwife]

This STILL has NOTHING t o do with buying or selling a home,

unless

We are talking about National Homebuying and Selling Month

[quincy]

Actually, Bush declared in 2006 that June would be National Homeownership Month. Of course, in Michigan, it would be more aptly called National Home Foreclosure Month.

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by quincy

Actually, Bush declared in 2006 that June would be National Homeownership Month. Of course, in Michigan, it would be more aptly called National Home Foreclosure Month.

**A: change that to year.