stitching and bitching

[rmd]

someone is seriously trying to trademark "stich n' bitch"? i'd think there's waaaay too much prior art on that one.
details at the cafe press blurb here

Comments

[lil-brown-bat.livejournal.com]

Wow, whatta buncha flaming assholes.

Stitch and Bitch, Cambridge MA, early '90s. G'head, sue me!

[judith-s.livejournal.com]

The author of those books also has pending trademarks on stitch 'n bitch. The trademark, which has been granted, is for Stitch & Bitch Cafe. That is not equivalent to Stitch 'n Bitch, or any of its variants.

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=nf4ofa.1.1&p_search=searchstr&BackReference=&p_L=100&p_plural=no&p_s_PARA1=stitch&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA1%24ALL&expr=PARA1+and+PARA2&p_s_PARA2=bitch&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA2%24ALL&a_default=search&a_search=Submit+Query

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

Depsite the trademark being for "Stitch & Bitch Cafe," they are going around to places like yahoo groups and claiming infringement against anyone who uses "stitch and bitch" in their group name, etc. And yahoo et al are caving.

[judith-s.livejournal.com]

I can understand why Yahoo wimped out. Getting sued, even if the lawsuit has no basis, is not cheap.

The correct answer, and I think the only real answer, is to completely boycott their products. If no knitters will buy their things, they will go out of business in a hurry.

But if you need a response letter, it's pretty trivial. It's their job, in order to show trademark infringement, that there is "consumer confusion." Ask them to do so.

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

The sad thing (well, maybe the sensible thing, to avoid just such boycotts) is that they sell sewing books and patterns, but they're targeting groups that mostly knit and crochet. I'm not really involved, just watching from the sidelines and saying "wow, way to alienate your customer base, guys..."

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, there are documented uses of the term going back a century and more. They claim they invented it in 1997. Uh-huh.

It would be no big deal if they weren't going after everyone else.