Added links for The Stranger in the Zebra Suit

Sunday 27 February 2011 - Filed under Branding + Communication + gaps + thoughts

Real Estate Zebra’ hit with trademark suit
Real estate agent and blogger Daniel Rothamel — known for years to his readers as the “Real Estate Zebra” — has been hit with a trademark infringement lawsuit by a company that produces a “Zebra Report” and “Zebra Blog” to market its services to real estate agents.

Would the real Zebra, please stand up? Realtor, blogger, sued
Daniel Rothamel, popular blogger, Realtor, and friend to many was sued on Febuary 22, 2011 in Seattle District Court demanding relief in regards to Rothamel’s use of the Zebra stripes “trade dress” violations. The suit alleges that Rothamel and the Strong Team Realtors have violated their trademark by using the zebra stripes and alleges use of their trademark “was and is calculated to cause injury to Plaintiff in the State of Washington” which is why they’re seeking $75,000 in damages.

Zebra trademark backlash
About a week ago, The Lones Group in Washington state brought an action for trademark/tradedress infringement against Dan Rothamel and Strong Team Realtors (in Virginia) over the defendants’ use of some allegedly “confusingly similar” elements. As often happens, this didn’t sit well with a number of people (check out Twitter hashtag #savethezebra). Does the Lones Group have a case? If not, what could they have done differently to protect their marks? Could this have been resolved without a formal complaint and the resulting backlash?

2011-02-27  »  Russ Leseberg