Quote:
Originally Posted by slm
About spray-painting "Ferrari" on your car. As this is a registered trademark, the owner of the trademark probably can require you to remove it and to pay for the use you have made of it.
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Probably not. I thought Ferrari was a common family name in Europe. But wanting a citation of that (which always seems to be required in this forum), I did a quick internet search.
Quote:
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Ferrari comes from ferraro, meaning “blacksmith,” putting it on par with the English & American surname “Smith.” And much like “Smith,” the Ferrari name is quite common — it’s the third most common surname in Italy.
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https://www.ferrarilakeforest.com/ma...-ferrari-mean/
I don't think an overzealous corporate trademark quest would succeed in forcing you to remove this common word spray painted on the side of your car. Maybe in Europe - they sometimes have strange laws (like you can't call a cheese this or that unless it came from here or there). But in the US where I live, I really doubt that the car manufacturer of the same name would get any "usage" money out of me or force me to repaint my car. I don't think you can trademark a word either. You can trademark a logo that uses the word - the font, color, layout, graphic elements, etc. - but not the word itself. You may be able to trademark a non-word though (I'm thinking something like "Chick-fil-A" which is not a recognized real word - it's a made-up word).
But this is neither here nor there. I was just trying to create a silly analogy to putting "EBOK" in your computer files metadata. I highly doubt that Amazon has trademarked the pseudo-word "EBOK" in this context anyway.