I've heard recently from several people that someone is making calls
and sending email regarding use of a certain trademarked slogan.
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
1. You can look up trademarks at uspto.gov. I use the advanced
search at http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=search&state=m71dai.1.1
but there are several search functions you can use.
If you're searching for a multiple word trademark like "got milk"
enclose it in quotes, otherwise you'll get everything with "got"
and everything with "milk" when what you want is both terms.
2. If you can prove that you used a term before the trademark date,
you have nothing to worry about. This is called your "first use
in commerce" date and you're entitled to use the term if you used it
before the trademark.
3. A google search for the slogan in question returns 27,200
results. This tells us a few things.
One, it is in such common use that trademark rights are probably not
enforceable anyway. The owner has probably lost trademark rights due
to lack of enforcement over a period of years.
Also, the famous "Got Milk?" campaign made the "Got (blank)?" term
so generic that everyone uses it now. Got tires? Got shoes?
Got it?
The slogan has been used (and is being used) by many, many scoopers,
including two franchises. There are even products with the slogan
being sold by various companies on the net.
The owner seems to be going after a few select people, and this is
a problem, too. It's quite likely that a court would view this
as a punitive action. In other words, picking on one or two or three
rather than all users of the slogan.
Seems to me there's not much to stand on here, not much for people
to worry about....
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