Macy's wanted these names killed off, never to return even though consumers wanted these stores back. Under US trademarks laws, after three years of non-use you could lose your trademark. Most of the marks in-question had not been used for 5-12 years already.
Macy's closed down the regional stores in-question to re-brand them as Macy's, leaving a huge hole in retail for these communities. People wanted their old stores back and Macy's said they will never happen even when 100,000 Chicago consumers signed a petition to bring back Marshall Fields. They don't care about the consumers. We just wanted to bring those experiences back to the public and US trademark law says after three years of non-use, the mark can go back to the public domain.
Actually the article is factually wrong. Macy's used to be Federated and decided when they bought Macy's out of bankruptcy to close all the regional stores they had and turn some of them into Macy's, trying to create a national chain like JCPenny and Sears. After closing, there was a major backlash by local consumers in these markets because they felt Macy's/Federated ripped the heart out of their local markets by taking away the regional stores they loved. Strategic Marks wants to bring these stores back. Most of the trademarks in-question had not been used for 5-12 years and according to US trademark law they go back into the public domain. Macy's claim was they were still using the marks but they weren't until we started our on-line store. They then freaked out and placed a page on their Macy's.com website to fool consumers into thinking they were being used. There was a second group of marks which were part of the lawsuit that "technically" they started re-using again which is what the Summary Judgement is about. They did not win the first Summary Judgement for the first group of marks. And the judgement was only for t-shirts and handbags, not retail store services which was the focus of our lawsuit.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by elliakassoff.
Strategic Marks lawsuit
Yes, Macy's wanted to kill the brands, never to return even though consumers were begging for them to come back.
Strategic Marks lawsuit
Macy's wanted these names killed off, never to return even though consumers wanted these stores back. Under US trademarks laws, after three years of non-use you could lose your trademark. Most of the marks in-question had not been used for 5-12 years already.
Re: Re:
Yep..
Strategic Marks settlement
Macy's closed down the regional stores in-question to re-brand them as Macy's, leaving a huge hole in retail for these communities. People wanted their old stores back and Macy's said they will never happen even when 100,000 Chicago consumers signed a petition to bring back Marshall Fields. They don't care about the consumers. We just wanted to bring those experiences back to the public and US trademark law says after three years of non-use, the mark can go back to the public domain.
Re:
Not sure I understand your point.
Re: Macy's Settlement
Actually the article is factually wrong. Macy's used to be Federated and decided when they bought Macy's out of bankruptcy to close all the regional stores they had and turn some of them into Macy's, trying to create a national chain like JCPenny and Sears. After closing, there was a major backlash by local consumers in these markets because they felt Macy's/Federated ripped the heart out of their local markets by taking away the regional stores they loved. Strategic Marks wants to bring these stores back. Most of the trademarks in-question had not been used for 5-12 years and according to US trademark law they go back into the public domain. Macy's claim was they were still using the marks but they weren't until we started our on-line store. They then freaked out and placed a page on their Macy's.com website to fool consumers into thinking they were being used. There was a second group of marks which were part of the lawsuit that "technically" they started re-using again which is what the Summary Judgement is about. They did not win the first Summary Judgement for the first group of marks. And the judgement was only for t-shirts and handbags, not retail store services which was the focus of our lawsuit.