UPS Sues New Jersey Lawyer for Trademark Infringement
April 6, 2008 – 2:47 pmUPS has sued a New Jersey lawyer, Samuel Z. Brown, of The Law Offices of Samuel Z. Brown - for supposedly infringing on UPS’s trademarks involving the color brown, including the use of Sam’s last name in the domain for his firm’s website.
From The Daily Report:
UPS objects to Brown’s Web site, www.sambrownlaw.com, and his uses of the phrase “See What Brown Can Do for You,” and his “Brown Engine” that performs a “See What Brown Can Find for You” search function. The 101-year-old UPS has used brown as a signifier since 1916, according to court papers. One of the parcel service’s founders, chose the color brown for company uniforms and delivery vehicles because the color “reflected class, elegance and professionalism,” the company said in its pleadings.
Its quite hilarious that UPS thinks it owns exclusive rights to a color which also happens to be a last name. None the less, this is a suit UPS is unlikely to win as the courts have held that common terms can be used by multiple trademark holders in unrelated businesses. For instance, Best Buy would have a hard time suing someone who uses the term “Buy Here, Pay Here” to sell cars.
Since UPS is filing frivolous lawsuits, it has crossed the mind of The United Package Smashers’s webmaster that we could be the next target, since we make use of another part of their trademarked terms “United Package”. We have also made various uses of their brown color scheme in the past.