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Comment by ShakataGaNai | Hacker News Reader

This is amusing and not at all surprising. If they only remove from private property & not public right-of-ways, everything will be fine - but you know it won't.

Most importantly "Scoot Scoop" for a name? I imagine they will be get getting a C&D for the use of the "Scoot" name in very, very, very short order.

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Tow truck drivers often photograph the vehicles they are going to tow, before towing. This is to document the exterior condition of the vehicle, and to show that there were signs in place.

The web site says that they are an existing towing business, and so they'll likely do the same thing.

Source: See recent videos from http://youtube.com/gtoger, who works at a company in Dallas.

Unlike a car, scooters are much easier to move prior to towing.

How is "Scoot" problematic? "Scooter" has been a generic term for, uh, scooters for decades.

There’s nothing preventing someone from trademarking a common word. Apple, for example. In fact multiple orgs can trademark the same word in different fields. In Apples case they were sued by “Apple Corp” the Beatles publishing arm and we’re okay (for the most part - they paid 80k initially) until they started making larger forays into the music space and suddenly they had to pay 24M for use of the name.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer

GP seemed a bit more certain than "someone somewhere might have trademarked the word 'scoot' at some time"?

Scoot's slang for "motorcycle" in some crowds too. I agree it's quite generic from the get-go.

Why, what’s wrong with scoot? It introduces brand confusion somehow? Someone has it exclusively trademarked?

I doubt it.

It is interesting that there are two "Scoot" trademarks in same category already:

http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=86900097&caseType=SERIAL_N...

http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=88018747&caseType=SERIAL_N...

Ones a computer game, the second is the scooter service. There might be enough difference there for the separate marks.

Yes Scoot is trademarked.

Isn't descriptive or nominative use an allowed fair use case under trademark law?

I think you're allowed to say your business is "iPhone Repairs" even though Apple have trademarked iPhone (and have an army of lawyers who'd love to slap you down if they thought they'd win in court).

You can say your business does “iPhone repairs” but calling your business (descriptive use) “IPhone Repairs” is not permitted.

If it is, I don’t see any i fringement. Who are they infringing upon?

https://scoot.co/san-francisco/

There is no trademark claim at that link. If they ever had a trademark, they haven't taken very good care of it.

http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=88018747&caseType=SERIAL_N...

IANAL, but is it really anyone's responsibility to consult that database? I would have expected the firm to designate its own trademarks whenever it uses them. Besides, the firm under discussion in TFA is not a competitor of this firm and couldn't really be confused with them.

Getting sued by the scooter company they're targeting could be good marketing.

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