I was given a shirt for Christmas that had an acronym and what is stood for under it. There was no trademark symbol on it. It was in the format :
XXXX
Xabcdef Xabcde Xabcde Xabcd
I was wondering if I might be able make these shirts and sell them so I did a search on the web for it. I found a site that was related to it. It had the following format with a TM symbol on it:
There might be issues with regard to trademark law even though it might not be registered federally. But that isn't the main issue here as I don't know what the words stated and whether or not those words could be trademarked even though the individual has a TM symbol next to it.
The words in conjunction with a shirt company might be able to be trademarked. I'd venture to say that if you had words on a shirt that were ROFL, Rolling On the Floor Laughing, I'd bet that it would be a difficult case to make for trademark infringment if you decided to place that acronym and series of words on your shirt. If you tried selling it as a brand that might be another story if this company was selling shirts using this mark as an indicator of being a designation of origin, e.g. ROFL would indicate a specific shirt manufacturer.
There might be other issues but we really don't have enough information to discuss this topic appropriately but I think you get the idea.
Originally posted by sholly I was given a shirt for Christmas that had an acronym and what is stood for under it. There was no trademark symbol on it. It was in the format :
XXXX
Xabcdef Xabcde Xabcde Xabcd
I was wondering if I might be able make these shirts and sell them so I did a search on the web for it. I found a site that was related to it. It had the following format with a TM symbol on it:
