Creatives publish articles and content within a wide variety of topics on Enliven. Sometimes they reference companies or products. Sometimes they subtly (or not so subtly) might promote a specific brand. That’s ok for us as long as it’s not hidden promotion or marketing of the brand where the creative or editor directly or indirectly is compensated by the brand to promote their brand or products on Enliven.
What is a trademark?
A trademark can be lots of things, but usually it’s a word, phrase or design (like a company name, a product name, a slogan or a logo). It shows you that this good or service comes from one company as opposed to some other company.
Trademarks exist to prevent consumer confusion over the source of a particular good or service. They also stop one company from free-riding on another company’s investment in branding. By contrast, they do not exist to help a company stop someone from discussing it (or its products) or to end secondary markets.
If someone is using your trademark on Enliven
If you think someone’s using your trademark in a way that’s likely to confuse readers, let us know. We’ll look into it. Then we’ll take appropriate action. This might include temporarily or permanently removing content.
If you think someone is infringing your trademark, send the following information to us
Your contact information:
Name
Mailing address
Email address
Phone number
Please note — we forward a trademark notice to the creative(s) who posted the disputed content. This might include your contact information, the name of your organization, and the contents of your notice.
The trademarked word or symbol
The trademark registration number and country where you claim trademark rights.
The category of goods and/or services in which you assert rights.
A link to the content on Enliven that you think infringes.
A description of how particular content may create confusion.
The action you request (e.g., removal of a particular post).
If you’re not the rights holder, describe your relationship to the rights holder.
A statement that:
You have a good faith belief that use of the trademark is not authorized by the trademark owner
You have determined in good faith after a reasoned analysis that the use of the trademark is not fair use
The information in your notice is accurate
In what scenarios would Enliven not take it down?
If they’re using it in a way not likely to confuse anyone about the source of a good/service.
If tshey are making fair use of it, such as nominative fair use.This is when someone uses a trademark to refer to a company or brand, not to indicate it is the source of a good or service. For example, if someone writes a story about Company X and in that story uses the phrase “Company X” to refer to “Company X,” that’s probably fair use. Even if “Company X” is your trademark. People are allowed to use your company or product name to write things, even negative things, about your company/product/brand. As long as they’re not confusing anyone about whether you authorized or endorse the post.