"One of the unfortunate inequities of our system is that having a large legal warchest simply allows someone to push around others over trademark "concerns" that aren't valid. The formula for this is consistent. Large corporate interest with lawyers at the ready will police the country for any uses of a term in any way close to the corporation's trademark, and C&D its victim into making a change, which itself only happens because the victim can't afford to fight back."
"But I'll admit I didn't expect the koozie people to have such a dirth of chill over this sort of thing. The Koozie Group is the company that holds the trademark for the word "koozie", which I didn't even know was a registered mark. I personally have always used the term generically to refer to a drink sleeve. Better Wheel Workshops makes drink sleeves out of wood and named its product "the woodzie"."
"The Chevaliers said they were informed about a year-and-a-half ago that Koozie Group, a large corporation based in Clearwater, Fla. that owns the trademark phrase "Koozie," filed a petition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel "The Woodzie" trademark due to potential confusion.Now, the couple is tentatively changing the name of the product to "Tree Sleeve." The website, betterwheelvt.com, will stay and any mention of "The Woodzie" will be removed."
Trademark bullying persists because large companies with deep legal resources can force smaller businesses to change names over tenuous trademark concerns. Koozie Group holds the registered trademark for the word "koozie." Better Wheel Workshops in Newfane produced wooden drink sleeves called "The Woodzie" for about a decade. Koozie Group filed a petition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the "The Woodzie" trademark due to potential confusion. The Chevaliers were informed about the petition roughly a year and a half ago. The couple is tentatively renaming the product to "Tree Sleeve," will remove mentions of "The Woodzie" from their website, and will notify wholesale partners before a full switchover by year-end.
Read at Above the Law
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