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Citigroup Sues AT&T For Saying 'Thanks' To Customers (techdirt.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Citigroup has a trademark on "THANKYOU" and is currently using it to sue ATT for using "Thanks." Ars Technica reports: "Who knew? Banking giant Citigroup has trademarked 'THANKYOU' and is now suing technology giant ATT for how it says thanks to its own loyal customers. This is 'unlawful conduct' amounting to wanton trademark infringement, Citigroup claims in its federal lawsuit." Citigroup doesn't appear to be gracious in its branding: Despite actual knowledge of Citigroup's substantial use of and exclusive rights in the THANKYOU Marks, Citigroup's use of the marks in connection with ATT co-branded credit cards, and Citigroup's concerns regarding ATT's proposed trademarks, ATT launched a customer loyalty program under the trademarks "thanks" and "ATT thanks" on or about June 2, 2016. ATT's use of the "thanks" and "ATT thanks" trademarks is likely to cause consumer confusion and constitutes trademark infringement, false designation of origin, and unfair competition in violation of Citigroup's rights. Citigroup therefore seeks to enjoin ATT's infringing conduct and to recover damages based on the injury ATT's conduct has caused to Citigroup as well as ATT's unjust enrichment. In April, ATT applied to trademark "ATT THANKS." Citigroup wants that trademark to be rejected because it thinks that proposed trademark is "confusingly similar to Citigroup's "THANKYOU Marks," according to its lawsuit.
Welcome to COSTCO, I Love You.
Idiocracy at its best!
The dumbest thing I've ever fucking seen. There are no words for the fact that we've gotten so low as to trademark appreciation. Not to mention the fact that these are two companies who, to the best of my knowledge, fuck their customers in the wallet in unconscionable ways with frequency.
Things like this are why people are against overuse of IP laws.
Best fucking CAPTCHA I've ever seen: truthful.
I think I am going to give a shot at saying "Citigroup" instead of thank-you. Them , when people look at me with a dumfounded expression, I can explain that Citigoup has established ownership over the words "Thank You" and "thanks."
Citigroup for reading my silly idea.
Citigroup are suing AT&T for marketing a rewards program based on the word "Thanks" because they have a registered trademark for a rewards program using "Thankyou" marks. This has nothing today with anyone 'saying thanks'.
No story here. Go about your business.
Comcast is just waiting for someone to infringe on their "Fuck You" to customers trademark.
Much better idea than using a general word that is used by everyone who isn't an asshole and even some who are only passive aggressive. You know the type. They work for AT&T. And apparently Citigroup.
Even the devil is having trouble picking sides on this one. Mainly because it would mean favoring one child over the other.
FUCKYOU
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
> happy friday from the cows guy
> YOU ARE ALL COWS AND ALWAYS
The only time I have seen any cow noises on slashdot is when YOU say them.
Conclusion: You are secretly a cow!
Do I win a prize?
Is it milk?
It isn't April 1, right?
Besides, hasn't AT&T been using "Thank you for using AT&T" in adverts / product placement as far back as Back to the Future II and Blade Runner?
Still.. this is just another sign that the end is nigh. They're running out of scams. Once they're out, what then? Do an honest day's work?
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
I keep reading all the information regarding the lawsuit trying to figure out if this is a joke but it seems this is real.
I can only think this has to be a joke. Trademarks don't work that way.
Someone tell me I've been on a huge practical joke TV show and this isn't real, we're not really choosing between a reality TV personality vs a felon for president, and Disney World doesn't really have alligators eating their guests.
BiteMe ©
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Now I have a legal reason for not being polite. Someone please trademark "Please" and "Further restrictions".
And no corporation is more Republican than AT&T. They have no respect for the law and stealing this trademark proves that.
Republicans steal. It's what they do. In this case, the phone monopoly is stealing.
Any government bureaucrat who had ANY involvement, however slight, in approving a trademark for "THANKYOU" should be fired.
Please tell me this is an early one.
Yesterday I got a text from T-Mobile.
"T-Mobile is thanking you with a share of Un-Carrier stock."
Is Citigroup going to try and take my stock away?
#DeleteChrome
This is par for the course in trademark land. Trademark rights might be lost when a trademark owner fails to police its mark against eroded distinctiveness. In this case, Citigroup think that AT&T's use could lessen the distinctiveness of their THANKYOU. On the face of it, it probably does. As a result, their trademark will become weaker, and may lose its distinctiveness entirely. If it does, they could actually lose the mark. To help avoid this, the trademark owner it pretty much obliged to police its mark through legal means, up to and including going to court. This is pretty much mandatory - you need to do this, it's not really an option. Some courts have determined you don't have to prosecute every infringing third-party use, but if you have the money and the mark is worth it to you, then it's a no brainer.
The trademark only applies when the business is saying "THANKYOU" when they mean "FUCKYOUVERYMUCH."
Even with that stipulation, however, Citibank's complaint against AT&T is still quite valid.
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
Republicans steal. It's what they do. In this case, the phone monopoly is stealing.
Actually they can't Boss Tweed Trademarked for the Democrats.
And I hope you rot in hell!
and kill both :)
And Ma Bell is the worst example of republicanism. They used the government to put their competition out of business.
...what about Telstra?
Prior Art:
https://youtu.be/u1z4vkPWkLQ
You are welcome on my lawn.
You got a greeting that started with an "H"- how's $20 sound? "Giddyup!"
ATT's use of the "thanks" and "ATT thanks" trademarks is likely to cause consumer confusion
It's true, people are surprised and confused to hear the word "thanks" coming from either of those corporations.
....to get ridiculous.
are a good reason to have it so trademark trolls lose every single trademark they ever have had, and are barred from ever getting anymore.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
dreaming this up in their hangover need to get a life!
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. Oh, and Thank You. I honestly hope they take the time to track me down and try to sue me for those 4 infringements.
The people that do these trademarks must be running software written by developers with ID 10 T errors.
Still less infuriating than patents.
I looked this up at the USPTO trademark site. It is registered trademark 3249982. Usually, a trademark examiner who is say...awake, would immediately reject the application on the basis that "THANKYOU" is "generic". Not here. The examiner just gave an initial "thumbs up" with no objection, and the rest is history. Amazing.
Typical of all ISPs, you will never get a "thank you" from them as a stable long standing customer. They strictly want "new customers" or "new service".
They sort of expect you to leave.. after a short period of time.
Just wait for AT&T to countersue Citigroup for their use of AT&T trademarked letter 'T'. In fact they should get double the damages since they trademarked it twice.
Screw it. Screw all of this. We can't afford - financially - to deal with crap this stupid anymore.
Just take away their lawyers licences, arrest the executives for treason, and then go do the same for AT&T because they're assholes anyways.
For once, *ONCE* in our bloody lives, let's actually make "crime doesn't pay" slightly less of a bloody lie.
To add insult to injury, the legal expenses for this ridiculous lawsuit are tax deductible.
Can we use Swedish, instead?
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Of course.
gofuckyourself
Lawyers own this country. They are the politicians and they write and Interpret all the laws. The illogical unbounded hyper litigious environment was designed by lawyers to enrich lawyers.
And that from an anonymous cow-ard...
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
that the dumbest, craziest, and greediest country in the world couldn't get any dumber, crazier, and greedier, they go and do this. America represent!
Now "thanks" doesn't even sound like a word to me.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
ohhh yes, a nice big cow with lovely, lovely udders!
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
> This is not the site to go to if you to drink the Kool-Aid on patents, trademarks, or copyrights. Hell, half the commenters on this site think Apple's circlejerk with a rounded corner to be utterly silly
There, fixed that for you.
Thank yuo
until "Furry Balls Plopped Menacingly on the table" are the only words left to trademark..
I figure "F*ck you" is closer to "Thank you" than "Thanks", no?
Was this lawsuit pulled from the Onion?
This doesn't even make sense anymore.
Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
nobody should be allowed to patent something as common as saying, printing or texting "thankyou" same with any other verbiage that is common to conversation
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Sounds more like Beanonymous Cowarthur.
Ezekiel 23:20
"Mom", "Love" and "Screen door" are registered trademarks of Mom Corp.
Hello Bernard!
Is it considered Fair Use if AT&T was being ironic?
"No Thank You!"
they sued each other to the poor house?
From the new division of Citigroup ThankWorld (tm)!
back some time ago there was a small public relations firm called Citigroup. Then along came this big corporate bank that decided they liked the name. The small firm took them to court and over the years of litigation, eventually the Court ruled in favor of Citigroup stealing the name of the small public relations firm. Who had been bankrupted by trying to defend their right to their name. Now someone says "Thanks" and they think they own the right to thank your customers? Awesome. Welcome to the 21st century in the USA.
My not responding to your flame is in no way indicative of my submission to your statement, it just means I don't have t
Because stupid lawsuits are a sign the economy is currently in the dumps and companies are struggling to find cash.
Citi and AT&T should both be fined 100mil for abusing the trademark system. What moron at the PTO approved the citi trademark?
There are a few morons here:
1. The morons from Citigroup that tried to trademark the term ThankYou
2. The morons from USPTO that approved the trademark application
3. The morons that filed that charges
4. The morons that even let it be filed into court
5. The future morons that will actually let this claim to "actually" be discussed in court
IÂll make billions of something - hopefully $$$$ dollars!
Trademarks on common words should never be allowed. Lets fix it starting with
* ÂAppleÂ
* ÂWindowsÂ
and other generic terms.
Citigroup: OK. We'll see you bitches in court.
Have gnu, will travel.
I'm going to trademark "FUCKYOU" and then you'll all owe me for infringement. HAHAHAHAHAHAH Evil Genius triumphs again!
Or in the words of Donald Trump, "congratulations".
http://www.slate.com/blogs/mon...
So that is why Americans are so rude...they can't even say thank you without being sued
Thank you (C) for being a friend . . .
The only sensible answer to shit like this is for the American people to stand up, line these fuckers up against a wall. and put a bullet in their idiotic, greedy, dishonest, fucking faces. Whoever signed off on this shit should be beaten to death and remove permanently from the gene pool.
I think Sean Connery actually owns that particular pronunciation...
as more and more companies adopt very simple slogans. walmarts "always", western unions "its money", we will soon see monosyllabic words, onomotopieas, and nonverbal utterances used as trademarks.
mcdonalds "mmm"
trojans "ughh"
ex lax "aaah"
pampers "awwww"
smith and wesson "owwwww"
victorias secret "wow"
trump for president "hah!"
Close down all the law schools. Obviously we already have way too many lawyers.
Most of the time you can't do anything to counter such behavior in governments. But when it is companies . . . .
I had been an AT&T customer for decades, but when this happened https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... I dropped them forever and told them why.
Looks like Citi will go into the same bin, though it's just stupid and not the kind of pain they caused Len Rose, his wife and kids.
End MGM. Get prospective parents of boys to Google: Men do complain
What they may really be saying is FUCKED-YOU - again!
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
If not, I think I'll be registering it as a trademark and sue all the companies who have a "Customer Loyalty" card or program for infringing on my copyright. I hate both companies but hopefully AT&T can successfully fight this claim.