CotswoldEngraver Posted February 24, 2011 Report Share Posted February 24, 2011 Does anyone else sell the circular stainless steel medical alert tags supplied by mastergrave? The ones with the logo already embossed into the front. Just had all mine pulled from ebay! apparently trademark breach??? Had a look at the information sent with the email and it was reported by The Medicalert Foundation as a trademark breach???!!??? My listing had no reference to this organisation. Only thing I can see is the logo is similar but not the same. Anyone else suffered this at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petercoulson Posted February 24, 2011 Report Share Posted February 24, 2011 Thats an interesting one - http://www.medicalert.org.uk/ use the symbol but i'm not sure how they can complain as it is different. The staff of life is generally medical use but as far as i know not protected. Think Mastergrave should answer this one? *** just looked up and it looks like they may have a trademark on all tags showing staff of life and to contain medical information, this may be the issue. this - http://jewelry.zibb.com/trademark/medic+alert/29313512 relates to USA but could easily be worldwide Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Web_Engraver Posted February 24, 2011 Report Share Posted February 24, 2011 Does that mean that all items with this logo are illegal? http://hubpages.com/slide/Caduceus-Medical-Symbol/1104782 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenB Posted February 24, 2011 Report Share Posted February 24, 2011 I engrave a lot of THESE and would be pretty confident that they're not the 'real thing' as such. Though, if the lawyers for the company that sells them are reading this, I'm not making a direct accusation, just alleging that this might be the case. Or might not. Hope that's clear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petercoulson Posted February 25, 2011 Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 IF the info i found is correct then neither is a problem, it appears the staff of life is not protected but id devices to contain medical info on them with the logo on may be, that may be the issue. Cant wait to find out as it is fairly common to put both together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CotswoldEngraver Posted February 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 I was given an email address by ebay to contact the rights owner to ask why they were removed. Fired off a very "nice" email to them earlier so we wait with anticipation to see what their reasons are. If you are right peter then that means all of the ID tags are breaching the rules. They pulled all of mine with the steel tags (the logo already embossed in) but left all my aluminium dog tags, blank with staff of life logo engraved on (thanks to the forum for the logo of course!) will post any updates when i hear from them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CotswoldEngraver Posted March 2, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2011 Bit of an update. Had an email from Marcus of verowatch.com who act on behalf of The Medic Alert Foundation. They have said the words "Medic Alert" and "Medical Alert" are trade marks and connot be used in marketing any emergency alert tags. So watch how listings are worded if any of you have listing for these on ebay as we do. I do not think it is the logo itself it is the wording that they pulled ours for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satiusreesadimus Posted March 2, 2011 Report Share Posted March 2, 2011 deleted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petercoulson Posted March 2, 2011 Report Share Posted March 2, 2011 Ah, good interesting info Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted March 2, 2011 Report Share Posted March 2, 2011 I thought trade marks where exactly that "marks" & it would be the design of the wording not the words used that would be under trade mark. You can write McDonalds with out infringing any trade mark, using the registered way their logo uses it is a different matter. the words "medic" "medical" & "alert" are dictionary words. Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satiusreesadimus Posted March 2, 2011 Report Share Posted March 2, 2011 You may have thought it but you are wrong. In this case you could put medic alert on a plastic dog tag , pet collar, shoe sole and there is /would seem to be no infringement of the companies trade mark. Put it on a metal tag though and you are infringing. It is not the word it is the context and on what it is used that makes up the trade mark and the important bit is that we are talking about trade marks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted March 3, 2011 Report Share Posted March 3, 2011 you but the point is you can use the wording in your listing can you not? "Medic Alert style" ???? Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Web_Engraver Posted March 3, 2011 Report Share Posted March 3, 2011 From experiance Ebay don't like "style" being used. Got suspended for calling Star lighters "Zippo style" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now