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Comment by 3131s | Hacker News Reader

The Unicode Consortium did the same to me for a totally unmonetized hobby project.

"unmonetized" doesn't actually make a difference in trademark law. If they felt they had to defend the mark under the letter of the law in order to keep control of the mark, then they need to defend it where used for non-monetary gain (or no gain at all) as much as where it is used for that purpose.

Of course sometimes mark holders will avoid going after the bigger fish where possible, just in case, unless they have a very strong case (obvious deliberate misuse of the mark).

Are you claiming that trademark law doesn't care if there is trade happening?

That is correct, trademark law is only concerned about the mark the traders themselves use. You can trademark a bunch of stuff, do nothing with it, and sue the pants of anyone who comes near it if you want: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_troll

You have to use a mark for trade (in UK, EU, at least) to maintain a trademark. So, you can trademark a bunch of stuff but a challenger can point out you didn't use the mark and you can lose it - abandonment. A trademark isn't a trade mark unless you're using it for 'trade'!

Not legal advice. Personal opinion, in no way relates to my employment.

It doesn't care if the trade is specifically monetarily based.

If someone is taking something from you, even for free or with payment in "recognition dollars", trade is happening.

Many commenters pointed out that this is not true: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/trademark-law-does-not...

WRT needing to defend the mark: I was discussing what they seem to think is true, not necessarily that it was actually true, and that they are applying their interpretation fairly.

And legally required or not, publicly acting to defend the mark may put off others using something similar which is presumably the desire. A bit of a bully-boy tactic perhaps, but again I'm stating the fact rather than judging it.

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