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Bob Marley’s Wailers, who eventually became known simply as the “Wailers” after Bob Marley’s death, successfully argued for dismissal of this cybersquatting and trademark infringement lawsuit brought by band members of another Wailers musical group who started using the band name 10 years before Bob Marley named his group in 1969. Bob’s Wailers registered wailers.com in 1998 The only evidence which could potentially have saved Plaintiff’s claims against Bob’s protégées would have been that the band used the mark the “Wailers” and registered wailers.com in bad faith. No evidence of bad faith was introduced by plaintiffs.
Ormsby v. Barrett, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20 (UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON) teaches that a failure to assert trademark infringement claims in the face of know trademark infringement can result in a loss of trademark rights under the doctrine of laches.
More about this cybersquatting case can be found here.
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Congratulations to the Wailers, Bob, Peter, who will never know as they are both dead, but the remaining members, who had nothing walk away with this victory. Great music and a great band with a tragic ending. This is a nice victory for those that remain.
It also demonstrates that making sure you use trademarks and have them registered legally is a good idea to practice.
Many companies devote resources to obtain trademark registration, but fail to protect their marks thereafter. The same is true of domain name registration. Companies need to learn that they must monitor third party uses of their mark and send a trademark notice letter where appropriate. They need to monitor domain registrations which might infringe their marks. Companies that aren’t monitoring third party registrations and domain name registrations aren’t protecting their marks. Even unintentional infringement can cause you to lose your trademark rights.
Bob would no doubt tell the Plaintiff Wailers, “No Domain Name, No Cry!”