it's pronounced: E-Cig^TM

[dc2k08]

its probably not news to some of you but it was to me. e-cig, e-cigarette, e-cigarello, e-pipe e-cigar etc are all trademarked by Dr. Sam Han of e-cig.com notoriety.^*1

these are the terms that many of us, but more importantly the manufacturers use to describe our much mooted product.

we all remember that sony won the portable audio cassette player naming competition and their term became ubiquitous for that product much to the ire of panasonic et all, who could never scrabble^® to coin the better term. we all used 'walkmans' regardless of make, though any maker marketing their player as such would fall afoul of sony's lawyers. toshiba tried "the walky" and aiwa - "cassetteboy". but nothing stuck.

So when is Dr Sam going to be cashing his chips? and why are the myriad of electronic cigarette manafacturers who use his TM's heedless to a pending law-suit?

I barely understand (under-statement) the patent issue and recieve only nonsensical or veiled replies from the manufacturers/re-sellers i question if i recieve any at all. questions i have asked on the forum go unanswered.

so what's the deal? why is it that the TM and patent are treated as non-issues? is a TM meaningless unless its an R? Does ruyan only own an appearence patent and not the one on technology? or are they just biding their time? I know that they tried to sue njoy and revelle in the states, but what was the outcome? anyone ever hear?

*1: E-cig expressions

edit: woops; about the html in the title. hoped it would recognise it. cant re-edit that now. are "[]" noticed there also?

 

[dc2k08]

so 3 weeks later, 88 views and not one response...am i off-base asking these questions or just dont anybody know the dealio?

 

[MagusSteele]

It would be interesting to know.
Only thing I would say to it, the Chinese are a little Lax on copyright laws, hehe
Not like it is here in the states.

 

[dc2k08]

yeah i realise that intellectual property law is relaxed to say to say the least, but these companies do have the right to prosecute under the european and american legal systems as proved by ruyan's case against njoy and revelle.

 

[MagusSteele]

They can sue, but I dont think it would get far.
Its hard to sue china, unless they want to be sued.
NOW, if a compnay here, or in the UK started getting big off of the use of E-Cig, or something, THEN you will see the wigs/lawers scurry out from the woodwork.

 

[shesmokem]

Strangely, China has 3 separate patents...If you only have 2 you have nothing...Coversely a trademark over here, or Patent, will obviously not dissuade the Chinese from reproducing an item...Thus the $19.99 Full Set Of Callahan Golf Clubs...LOL

 

[Denni]

A trademark (TM) is meaningless unless it's registered.

But I'm not sure whether a third party can go ahead register a term that is already in use as a trademark by somebody else.

I.e. Dr. Sam could register his terms properly and then go chasing after his competitors, but I don't think they could register those terms and then go after Dr. Sam

 

[dc2k08]

or Patent, will obviously not dissuade the Chinese from reproducing an item...Thus the $19.99 Full Set Of Callahan Golf Clubs

can it not dissuade an english or american company selling these clones legitimately though?