Halcyon's new "Contour" SM system?

[Eric Sedletzky]

I ran across this and found it interesting:
Halcyon Contour SM | Halcyon

So, apparently they think the name "Contour" isn't so bad after all, even though I've had my Freedom Contour out for quite a long time now.
And a trade mark on the name even...Ooooh.
That shape sure looks familiar, maybe there's more to the backpack style than they originally thought.
I wonder when it's going to be a full on rip off, perhaps when they make a hard singles plate similar in shape to the FCP and call it their H singles "Contour" plate?
Well, at least they can't call the concept non DIR compliant anymore.

 

[RJP]

Eric - do you have a trademark on the name Contour? If so, depending on exactly how you registered it you'd probably have some recourse.

I'm not a lawyer, but spent many years in product naming, branding, etc. As you'd imagine, a lot of that time was spent with IP lawyers. Some of it rubbed off...

Plate design would be more challenging, even if you have a patent on your plate... for a variety of reasons I can share offline.

PS - no, your plate is still not "DIR compliant" for BM tanks.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Consider talking to a good trademark lawyer.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Eric - do you have a trademark on the name Contour? If so, depending on exactly how you registered it you'd probably have some recourse.

I'm not a lawyer, but spent many years in product naming, branding, etc. As you'd imagine, a lot of that time was spent with IP lawyers. Some of it rubbed off...

Plate design would be more challenging, even if you have a patent on your plate... for a variety of reasons I can share offline.

PS - no, your plate is still not "DIR compliant" for BM tanks.

I don't really care the plate isn't DIR compliant, I'm totally over it. I do think it's amusing however that here's a company that invented the entire DIR philosophy and was so strict and narrow about gear choices and design, but now look at what they've got. It just proves that money and profits are the strongest motivators.
As far as TM's, no I don't have any trademarks on any names I use. I really don't care that others would use the names or similar names. That would be like trying to get a TM on the word "Hamburger" if you had a burger joint, or "bucket seat" if you were making or selling bucket seats for cars. Lots of people make bucket seats for cars and they all call them bucket seats..
If someone makes a product similar to mine and says it's "contoured" to fit your back then that's just a description. The only thing I don't want is for Halcyon's attorneys sending me a cease and desist letter telling me I can't use the word "Contour" anywhere in my product name because they got a TM on it. I can prove I was using that word long before they came out with their SM system.
I don't have any patents on design since design patents are the hardest to enforce and very expensive to acquire.
I was told by a few different attorneys to pretty much forget about patents they are a waste of time, and just do it. If someone want's to rip me off they will find a way to do it. The Chinese are great at that, and it would cost way more in attorneys fees to go after them than I would ever make back selling fringe backplates to a few hundred cult followers.

I'm more just giggling about this whole thing and in a way think it's kinda cool.
BTW, Patrick at Oxy has been making the soft travel plate for a long time too. I remember discussing it on the phone with him when he had the idea in his mind. We talked about all sorts of different ways to do it and even discussed the old backpack shape etc.

I'm going to keep an eye on this, because if they come out with any sort of old style cut-a-away hard plate design for singles then I'm going to pop an expensive bottle of champagne and consider it a victory.

 

[Centrals]

Eric - do you have a trademark on the name Contour? If so, depending on exactly how you registered it you'd probably have some recourse.

I'm not a lawyer, but spent many years in product naming, branding, etc. As you'd imagine, a lot of that time was spent with IP lawyers. Some of it rubbed off...

Plate design would be more challenging, even if you have a patent on your plate... for a variety of reasons I can share offline.

PS - no, your plate is still not "DIR compliant" for BM tanks.

We used to have places called "Club Volvo" and "Club Popeye" and they all had to chage the name eventually.
We are allowed to "personalize" car number plate but eg. HSBC is definitely not of them.

 

[RJP]

The only thing I don't want is for Halcyon's attorneys sending me a cease and desist letter telling me I can't use the word "Contour" anywhere in my product name because they got a TM on it. I can prove I was using that word long before they came out with their SM system.

Unfortunately for you, the fact of the matter is you haven't been using the "name" contour at all. Without a trademark, you've simply been using the word contour as an adjective. Now that they have a TM on their name... you're in a position of probably needing to cease-and-desist using it going forward. Or go broke trying to prove otherwise.

 

[buddhasummer]

Unfortunately for you, the fact of the matter is you haven't been using the "name" contour at all. Without a trademark, you've simply been using the word contour as an adjective. Now that they have a TM on their name... you're in a position of probably needing to cease-and-desist using it going forward. Or go broke trying to prove otherwise.

Bummer.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Unfortunately for you, the fact of the matter is you haven't been using the "name" contour at all. Without a trademark, you've simply been using the word contour as an adjective. Now that they have a TM on their name... you're in a position of probably needing to cease-and-desist using it going forward. Or go broke trying to prove otherwise.

That's one thing that won't happen; me going broke trying to prove anything. I can still use it as an adjective to describe my product, just like somebody trying to TM the word "plate" and keep everyone else from using it, it'll never happen, everybody calls their product a "plate"...mine's just a contoured plate - just a description.
They can have the TM if it means that much to them. But *if* it ever came to that I'll know, and a lot of other people will know who had the "Original Contour". But I think we're jumping to conclusions a little too quick.
If that ever happened it would actually be the most flattering thing that ever happened to me.
And you'd be in luck too, just think, since Halcyon would make it and call it a "Contour" it must be DIR compliant, so you could actually use it...probably with your precious Halcyon wing with no slots.

 

[RJP]

That's one thing that won't happen; me going broke trying to prove anything. I can still use it as an adjective to describe my product, just like somebody trying to TM the word "plate" and keep everyone else from using it, it'll never happen, everybody calls their product a "plate"...mine's just a contoured plate - just a description.

See, that's where you might be wrong. No one could enforce a TM on the word plate... because it's not a protectable mark in the first place. You can't trademark what a thing is, especially when the word for that thing is an obvious, common name. For instance McDonald's can't trademark the word "hamburger." However, with them having registered the mark "McDonald's" even if your name were actually Eric McDonald... not only could you not name a restaurant you opened "McDonald's" you couldn't even describe hamburgers that you served as being "McDonald's hamburgers."

You can probably continue to describe your plate as "being contoured", but you probably can't describe it as having a "contour" and you certainly cannot call it a Freedom Contour plate or even a Freedom Contoured plate.

This is precisely why ad agency folks always counsel clients to come up with a new word, alternate spelling for a word, or a unique compound combination of words when creating a trademark. For instance Con-tour, Kontour, Contoor, ConTur, or even Contourplate would all have (previously) been protectable marks. Personally, I would always advise to go an extra step to be clear, like my J&J client did...

You may think that those things you put on your finger when you cut yourself are "Band Aids" but if you look closer you'll see that J&J doesn't. They are crystal clear about the difference between "what they are" (adhesive bandages) and "what they are named" (Band-Aid). Even the hyphen is important, as it creates a unique compound word out of the two difficult to protect words "Band" and "Aid." See also how they've trademarked the design of the pad - QUILTVENT - they couldn't trademark Quilted or Vented or even Quilt Vent. But QUILTVENT is a unique, made-up word. They own it. No one else can use it.

Same is true for Jell-o brand gelatin, Windex brand cleaner, etc, etc

If Halcyon were smart...
A.) They wouldn't have chosen a existent, common word for a brand name, or if they did...
B.) They would have altered it in a way to make it unique, and/or...
C.) They would have at least modified it for clarity such as "Contour^TM brand SM System" or similar

If only there were someone in the scuba industry who understood this sort of stuff.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Sigh...
Well like Budda said, Bummer.
I'll have to be smarter about these things in the future.
I'll come up with something original like Voit did with "Snugpack" or AL did with "Kam-EZ-Pak", then get it TM'd.

And there actually was a case about McDonalds going after a guy in Ireland Who had a restaurant and he used his surname McDonald.