Need Help: Abandoned Logo

[nurv]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida


Ill get right to the point. A company that operated from 1997 to around 1999, bought out by another company purely for the user base in 2000. Once the buyout was complete, the original company was defunct and all images, services were abandoned. The logo has not been in use for 13 years now. Id love to use it, but dont know if this logo is now public domain since its been out of service for so long. The company that bought is still in business, but all trademarks are dead and cancelled and there is no trace of the original artwork to be found. Everything is dead.

Is it legal to use this logo and possibly trademark it?I have no idea who the original creator of it is since it was made so long ago. As stated before, ive done searches on the USTPO and all searches come up cancelled by section 8. Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[quincy]

Depending on the logo, it is possible that there are copyrights that still attach to the design - although many logos are not creative enough to be protected.

A trademark that was registered with the USPTO is generally considered abandoned if it has not been used for 3 years or more, so non-use of a mark in commerce for 13 years would open the mark up to use by anyone. In other words, the mark's previous owner could not prevent you from using it.

However, you would still want to ensure that the business that purchased the old company has actually abandoned the trademark and does not have plans to resume use of the mark or logo after a company restructuring, or has products or services that still use the mark.

While this would be unlikely after all of this time, it would not be unheard of for a company to challenge another's use of a seemingly abandoned mark.

For one example, you can check out American Motors Corp. v Action Age, Inc., 178 U.S.P.Q. 377 (TTAB), an abandonment-of-mark dispute over the Rambler automobile trademark. American Motors was able to demonstrate that they did not abandon the Rambler auto mark, even though the autos had not been manufactured for years.

You may want to run the specifics by an attorney in your area. Good luck.