Four-Year Effort by Dish to Trademark ‘TV Everywhere’ abandoned
The long fight by Dish Network to possess the term “TV Everywhere” ultimately did not reach anywhere. The satcaster has silently abandoned its battle with Time Warner Inc., DirecTV, Comcast and other cable operators in trying to secure trademark protection on the term. The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office was notified by Dish last week that it was withdrawing the 4-year-old application for “TV Everywhere,” which has been used as a generic buzzword to refer to authenticated pay-TV services.
A representative of Dish declined to comment regarding the matter. No explanation was provided by the company on its filing for the withdrawal.
The application to trademark the term for “TV Everywhere” was filed by Dish as early as Sept. 17, 2009, but the satcaster’s application for opposition was only published only in the autumn of 2011 due to procedural delays. Soon after the application for opposition was published it was challenged by companies including Time Warner, DirecTV, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Charter Communications and Cablevision Systems.
Dish’s move to trademark the term “TV Everywhere” was objected by these companies on the ground that the term had been used generically to describe authenticated online video services — in some cases prior to Dish’s trademark application.
Each of the companies objecting to Dish’s grab for “TV Everywhere” argued that the term had been used generically to describe authenticated online video services — in some cases even before Dish’s trademark application. Time Warner even claimed their own executives had coined the term.
After Dish scrapped its claim on “TV Everywhere,” five cable operators including DirecTV have dropped their opposition to “Dish Anywhere,” which was officially challenged by them last September. Dish now uses “Dish Anywhere” on its website to refer to its Internet-delivered TV services and apps.
Trademark Registration in Japan
Patent Attorney：Hiroshi Oogai
Address：304 BUREX Hirakawacho 1-5-15 Hirakawa-cho,
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Phone：＋81-3-4570-0792
Mail：contact @ trademark-registration-japan.com
