tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post9083661141123606114..comments2024-03-28T18:57:15.124-06:00Comments on Wash Park Prophet: Vail Ski Resort Loses Service Mark CaseAndrew Oh-Willekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537151821869153861noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post-29014238935638469562009-02-02T08:11:00.000-07:002009-02-02T08:11:00.000-07:00Yea Eric! Breat job! I just came back from Vail. I...Yea Eric! Breat job!<BR/> I just came back from Vail. I hadnt been there in years. Katz and his cohorts has disneyfied the place to ad nauseam. It has been turned into a highly commercialized tourist ripoff. They now employ thousands of kids from south america, getting away with severely underpaying them so that they can put more $$ in their pockets while the locals look for jobs. Where was the justice department during all this merger and mayem?<BR/>On top of that we were treated poorly. Management staff acts like SS Nazis in a facist dictatorship. I will never go back there again!Dennishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03041477521138622596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post-55106810184984299962008-02-11T07:23:00.000-07:002008-02-11T07:23:00.000-07:00It sounded like a reasonably strong mark to me, un...It sounded like a reasonably strong mark to me, until I found out that they didn't even bother to assert trademark rights over skivail.com and vailmountain.com, which the WTO/ICANN very willingly does. Any mark, no matter how strong to begin with, becomes weak if the owner does not proactively defend against all misuses of it. The part of the opinion that comes closest to expressing this sentiment is:<BR/><BR/>In the specific context of ski resort services, the services for which it's registered and for which it’s widely known, yes, it’s strong, . . . . However, since Vail is inherently a geographically descriptive term in this context, has been forever, or its entire length of usage, I believe, used by third parties for a variety of goods and services related to the Vail, Colorado area, then it is not strong . . . .Michael Malakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10007582156392845677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post-84984702463826296142008-02-09T22:54:00.000-07:002008-02-09T22:54:00.000-07:00Dear Andrew,This is Eric Hanson the owner of 1-800...Dear Andrew,<BR/><BR/>This is Eric Hanson the owner of 1-800-SKI VAIL. This has been a 13 year battle finally won. The victory has put an end to VA's monopoly to the term "Vail" the term is now available to all businesses to use free of charge. It feels awsome to have brought the big dog down! <BR/><BR/>By the way we didn't pick this fight and fighting the legal battle cost us everything. Winning is bitter sweet, some should be in jail for their actions (coersion of a witness by an attorny is so wrong)and we certainly should get our attorny fees plus a whole lot more but we have only had the opportunity spend gobs of money.<BR/><BR/>If anyone would like to contact me for more information please call 208-755-2306 <BR/><BR/>Eric A. HansonAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00129553025992440547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post-69220622833622785342008-02-08T19:31:00.000-07:002008-02-08T19:31:00.000-07:00I've always been annoyed by the handling of tradem...I've always been annoyed by the handling of trademarks and domain names. A trademark should not give one a global monopoly over a case-insensitive ASCII string, and countless variations thereof.<BR/><BR/>I'm astounded that a trademark would have any bearing on a seven-digit phone number. If my phone number ends in 769, can the Red Sox prevent me from advertising it as "SOX"?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com