A few weeks ago we announced how the Chatroulette saga would soon seemingly end, with the approval for registration of Chatroulette as a trademark.
But hold your horses and hold onto your seats: the REAL Chatroulette.com owners have just awaken up from their long Siberian winter sleep and applied for the Chatroulette trademark!
Shocked? We are.
A few months ago we pointed out that the trademark application at the USPTO was from a Swiss corporation. At that point in time, we thought that perhaps it’s a corporate entity formed by the Russian developer of Chatroulette.com
Alas, that was not the case.
Screen-shot of Applicant's website showing use of the mark in connection with the identified services.
The new application, however, is the real McCoy.
On January 13th, Chatroulette Inc. applied for the “Chatroulette” mark. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, the applicant tapped two classes for its trademark:
Class 038: Telecommunication services, namely, providing real time video communications, dating and chat video messaging, and transmission of entertainment and information content; computer services, namely, providing on-line facilities for real-time interaction with other computer users concerning topics of general interest; providing video chat rooms
Class 045: Computer services, namely, providing information regarding, and in the nature of, on-line dating, on-line video introduction services, and on-line video communications; video chat services, namely, providing an on-line computer database enabling strangers to meet and communicate real-time; providing a social networking website for entertainment purposes
What’s important is that the application is on the basis of existing use (first use in Commerce 12/5/2009) and NOT on the basis of intent to use, which was the type of application that the Swiss guys sent through.
Yikes!
Essentially, what we expect to see in the coming weeks is the almost certain opposition of the mark’s Swiss application, once it’s published in the official trademark Gazette of February 15th.
And that’s not all: the application lists a total of 10 appointed attorneys, which makes the intentions of the Chatroulette Inc. application very clear and downright intimidating 😀
