Late last night I was watching Bravo™ network when a commercial came on for Nation magazine. Several times in the text they used the phrase “The Straight Dope.” Are they infringing on the Chicago Reader’s registered trademark?
IANAL, but probably not. “The straight dope” is considered to be a common phrase, and as such, it enjoys limited protection under trademark law. See here.
If I’m understanding this correctly, it’s basically saying that unless one is using the phrase as the title of another newspaper column or some such thing, it’s not a trademark infringement.
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