B
bluegirl
Guest
hi,
I am a member of a music band that's been writing and
recording music for about a year. We've sold recordings
of our music (including across state lines) but we
haven't performed live nor do we plan to in the near
future. We would like to protect our band name through
a trademark, and have done some reading about registering
federal trademarks. Most of the things we have read that
are oriented towards musicians advised us to register a
service mark for musical performances. However, this
advice seems to be more oriented towards bands that
perform live. If we did this it sounds like (and please
correct me if I'm wrong) we would have to put on a live
show and advertise it across state lines to have a
legitimate claim to a trademark for musical performance,
and then the "Date of First Use" of the trademark would be
the date of the show (which hasn't happened yet). I was
wondering if for us it would make more sense to register a
trademark on goods (CD's, tapes, etc), since we can show
that we've sold CD's of our band across state lines for
almost a year.
Also, if we did put on a show so that we could register a
service mark for musical performances, I am wondering what
the rules are in terms of advertising our show on the
internet... Our band has an internet website, accessible
from anywhere, which has been up as long as we've been
recording and through which we sell our CD's. If we
advertise the show on our band's website, could the website
count as a 'specimen' for the purpose of the trademark
application? if so, how would we 'send it in'? (a printout?
a photograph of the computer screen?)
thanks,
bluegirl (from California)
I am a member of a music band that's been writing and
recording music for about a year. We've sold recordings
of our music (including across state lines) but we
haven't performed live nor do we plan to in the near
future. We would like to protect our band name through
a trademark, and have done some reading about registering
federal trademarks. Most of the things we have read that
are oriented towards musicians advised us to register a
service mark for musical performances. However, this
advice seems to be more oriented towards bands that
perform live. If we did this it sounds like (and please
correct me if I'm wrong) we would have to put on a live
show and advertise it across state lines to have a
legitimate claim to a trademark for musical performance,
and then the "Date of First Use" of the trademark would be
the date of the show (which hasn't happened yet). I was
wondering if for us it would make more sense to register a
trademark on goods (CD's, tapes, etc), since we can show
that we've sold CD's of our band across state lines for
almost a year.
Also, if we did put on a show so that we could register a
service mark for musical performances, I am wondering what
the rules are in terms of advertising our show on the
internet... Our band has an internet website, accessible
from anywhere, which has been up as long as we've been
recording and through which we sell our CD's. If we
advertise the show on our band's website, could the website
count as a 'specimen' for the purpose of the trademark
application? if so, how would we 'send it in'? (a printout?
a photograph of the computer screen?)
thanks,
bluegirl (from California)