I know everyone has been wondering about his, but here’s the story. People Magazine, April 3, 1989. (Yeah, I was off on the date.)
And a follow-up from several months later, Chrysler let it go.
That’s outdated.
The Boy Scouts now allow gays to join (and to pay the fees for belonging). They just won’t allow gays to be Leaders or employees (where they get paid by the organization). Such is progress (and profit).
actually if I remember correctly the creator of popeye and his heirs and amc had a running battle because of Eugene the magic jeep was trade marked before vehicle existed ,
Well, considering the post is from 2007, not surprising.
I would have to go to Jeep’s Bar and get really drunk before I bought a Jeep.
[/hijack] So what happened to Jeep’s Bar? Jeep is a name in The Netherlands and he was not competing with the cars. My understanding is that a TM protects only from competitors in your business. If my name were MacDonald, I could not open a hambuger joint or even a restaurant under that name.
Jeep retired, and is, as best I can tell, still living in Yuma AZ. I don’t know whether his bar in Alpine, Wyoming still survives, though.
While the OP is from 2007, and the topic’s been settled, this type of thing always reminds me of Groucho Marx’s letter to Warner Brothers. Probably apocryphal, but it makes for a great story.
Interesting. My Jeep is a bar and lounge.
Yeah, Eugene the Jeep first appeared in 1936. But the first vehicle trademark owner would have been Willys Overland, who registered the trademark in 1950. By that time, the owner of Popeye was Famous Studios, a subsidiary of Paramount, who had bought out Fleischer Studios.
Come to that, if the car company was so sensitive, how come they didn’t sue Eric Clapton over the name of his dog?
How do you register a trademark for a term that had been in generic use for an entire decade? Did the PTO forget about the war?
Willys designed the Jeep for the Army. The source of the term “Jeep” for the military version is debated, possibly from pronunciation of “GP”, possibly after “Eugene the Jeep” from the Popeye cartoons, or some other explanation. At any rate, it was being applied to something that was already Willys Overland’s product, so they were just making it official.
Ah, okay. Is there a similar story with Hummer? It comes from HMMWV, or “High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle”. I thought that sort of dry military acronym would be the last thing to inspire trademarks and brand names. But apparently someone owns that trademark, too.
And Apple? How can anyone trademark Apple Computers or Apple Music? Didn’t the PTO hear of the Garden of Eden? Sheesh.
Just because a word exists doesn’t mean it can’t be part of a trademark. Not all trademarks are Kodak and Xerox and such.
As to Jeep vehicles vs. Jeep’s Bar or whatever, you trademark a product (or design, etc.). To have a case, you have to prove something like confusion in the market (Do people think the bar is a vehicle?) or dilution (do they think Jeep/Chrysler owns the bar?), etc. In this situation, it’s a weak and stupid case. Esp. since the word predated the taking of the trademark. But just don’t go calling your bar the Xerox Place.
If you remember the TV series Dallas, the name “Ewing Oil” might come to mind.
There was actually a fellow in the oil business with the name “Ewing”.
He started, or had started a Ewing Oil business.
The Court said he had the right to use his name and the type of business in his business name, but he did NOT have the right to sell hats, belt buckles, ties, etc. with “Ewing Oil” blazoned across them.
Then there was the Apple Music (Beatles) v Apple Computer.
One deal in music, the other in computers, so no confusion - it wasn’t like computers were going to get into music, after all…
Apple Corps sued Apple Computer / Apple repeatedly over this: Apple Corps v Apple Computer - Wikipedia