https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2015/08/hashtags-are-not-trademarks-eksouzian-v-albanese-guest-blog-post-2.htm Wed, 02 Sep 2015 15:14:34 +0000 hourly 1 https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2015/08/hashtags-are-not-trademarks-eksouzian-v-albanese-guest-blog-post-2.htm#comment-1369 Wed, 02 Sep 2015 15:14:34 +0000 http://blog.ericgoldman.org/?p=14708#comment-1369 […] In the Eksouzian v. Albanese case in California’s Central District, the judge held that hashtags are not trademarks.  The case involved two vaporizer pen sellers, who settled an earlier dispute in 2014.  One of the terms of that settlement was for the Defendants to only use the term “cloud” as part of a unitary mark (a mark where multiple words paired together result in a single trademark). while Plaintiffs could not use “cloud” next to a specified set of words.  The parties returned to court two months later, with the Defendants claiming that certain hashtags employed by Plaintiffs violated the terms of the settlement.  The District Court held that Plaintiffs did not violate the settlement, as they felt that hashtags did not constitute a trademark (and thus there was no infringement). […]

]]> https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2015/08/hashtags-are-not-trademarks-eksouzian-v-albanese-guest-blog-post-2.htm#comment-1365 Fri, 28 Aug 2015 13:48:25 +0000 http://blog.ericgoldman.org/?p=14708#comment-1365 […] #trademark? A California federal district court ruled that hashtags are “merely descriptive devices, not trademarks,” and rejected the argument that one party’s use of certain hashtags on social media breached its agreement with the other party to not use the hashtagged terms in connection with the sale of products. […]

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