Flippa is a registered trademark at the USPTO.
Nothing wrong with protecting one’s mark, service mark or trade mark. That’s the reason the certification exists in the first place.
Australian domain marketplace, Flippa.com, contacted the owner of the domain name Flippex.com threatening to sue if he uses the domain for monetary gains.
The story gets really interesting, considering that the owner of Flippex.com was warned about the domain, when he asked for its evaluation on DNForum:
“Growing tired of buying domains names from GoDaddy auctions, I decided to register my own –> Flippex.com
Flippex will focus on real-estate, specifically, flipping houses to earn revenue. I already have the logo drafted in Photoshop and will need to start working on the website itself.”
Flippa.com registered the trademark “Flippa” not just for domain-related auctions, but for providing a platform, method and technology for users to trade, buy and sell a large variety of goods and services.
As the Flippa trademark states:
Dissemination of advertising for others via the Internet; Operating online marketplaces for sellers of goods and/or services; online trading services in which sellers post items to be auctioned and bidding is done electronically; business monitoring and consulting services, namely, providing information, data, statistics, analysis, and news in the field of online business
It’s clear that using Flippex.com to “flip” homes would directly infringe on the Flippa trademark as it’s confusingly similar for the same class of services.
According to the Flippex.com owner, Dave Slutzkin – Manager of Flippa.com – found his initial thread on DNForum and contacted him privately, warning him about the domain. That thread ranks very high in Google when someone searches for “Flippa tm“.
Moral of the story: when launching a service or product, make sure it’s not infringing on existing marks. Such a research can be performed diligently only by qualified intellectual property attorneys.
Now, if only Flippa would respect the famous trademarks that are being violated in its marketplace!
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Flippex ? Just register homesflip.com of flipfliphurray.com
It’s not *that* confusingly similar.
So does that the character the played “flipper” on that dolphin show in the 70s is going to have to change his name.
so sad because that dolphin has every right to his name now I wonder if he is going to have to change it.
The problem is Flippa’s overly broad trademark.
Dan – Good examples.
Don – No, unless dolphins trade tuna sandwiches on a web site.
Kevin – It’s the use that counts.
Omar – If it were unreasonably broad it would not have been approved.
Hi Lucius,
We see overly broad trademarks and patents everyday. There is nothing wrong with applying for as much protection as you can but when they go overboard thats when cases end up in court.
We also see trademarks and patents been invalidated on this grounds. Just because it was approved like this on the first place it do not mean it can be challenge.
Omar – The owner of Flippex.com has no trademark. Flippa has a trademark. Who wins? It’s obvious.
This is not a process of challenging an existing and well-established mark, it’s about violating one and ignoring the consequences. He’s lucky he got warned with a slap on the wrist.
With its existing USPTO registration, Flippa has some protection and *might* be able to successfully oppose the registration in the USPTO of another trademark filing for “flipwhatever” based on its generic goods and services description. But note that the USPTO alone already has about 2000 registered trademarks containing “flip”, most registered long before Flippa. I suspect “Flippex” could easily get approved if it tried to.
Potential Infringement is based on actual use and the association that has been created by consumers. Unless it is descriptive of the goods and services. When a trademark contains a generic term being used descriptively, it is considered a weak trademark.
As an example, “trademarkia” is also a registered trademark. There are over 1400 registered trademarks containing “trademark”. These are descriptive marks relating to trademark services. Most would have difficulty blocking other brands starting with “trademark”, also offering trademark services.
In the USA, the fact that it is registered versus not registered, is not so important, since the US recognizes common law rights.
Tom Barrett
EnCirca
Guy just took it personal.
Many domains contain flipping keyword so flippa must be follow all of them 🙂