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Attention All NON-Star Wars Starfighters

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Starfighter

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LucasFilm/Disney quietly registered the trademark/service mark "Starfighter" U.S. Application Serial No. 85037152 and 85903535. I'm wondering how that will play out with all those Star Trek Starfighter websites?

Should a company be able to trademark a word that it didn't create, or actually use in any of their movies; a word actually bought and paid for by the US taxpayer back in 1958 for the F-104 Starfighter?
 
LucasFilm: Word Mark: STARFIGHTER - Serial Number 85037133 - Goods and Services IC 028. US
022 023 038 050. G & S: Toy model vehicles and toy model space craft; play sets for toy model
vehicles and for toy model space craft; toy model space crafts and related accessories sold as units; role
playing toys; toy model vehicles and related accessories; toy vehicles; toy model vehicles and
accessories therefor sold as a unit. FIRST USE: 19960000. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19960000
- US Reg. No. 4218293 for STARFIGHTER, in IC 028.

LucasFilm: Word Mark: STARFIGHTER - Serial Number 85037152 - Goods and Services IC 009. US
021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Interactive entertainment software and accompanying instruction manuals
sold as a unit, namely, computer game software and manuals sold as a unit, video game software and
manuals sold as a unit; video game software, computer game software, and pre-recorded CD-ROMs and
DVDs featuring games, music, computer game software, and video game software; downloadable video
game software and downloadable computer game software. FIRST USE: 20010219. FIRST USE IN
COMMERCE: 20010219
- US Reg. No. 4543714 for STARFIGHTER in IC 009.
 
I've never heard of a Star Trek Starfighter website. It's likely they'll be using it for a video game or a novel.
 
LucasFilm/Disney quietly registered the trademark/service mark "Starfighter" U.S. Application Serial No. 85037152 and 85903535. I'm wondering how that will play out with all those Star Trek Starfighter websites?

Should a company be able to trademark a word that it didn't create, or actually use in any of their movies; a word actually bought and paid for by the US taxpayer back in 1958 for the F-104 Starfighter?

They can try, but thanks to that very same US gummint aircraft the term "Starfighter" is now in the public domain, like the phrase "USS Enterprise." The fact that it's also been used in the title of a feature film (The Last Starfighter) gives anybody who wants to challenge the Disney marks a couple of arguing points.

Of course, 'tis Disney, and they must have excellent litigators on their payroll...
 
I was just think the same, the word has been used as the name of an actual plane and in the title of a film. Might not hold up if challanged. Sure Something like Incom T-65 Starfighter would but not a generic discripition.
 
Serial number 85903535 - That is just part of the argument:
...The only possible similarity between Applicant's mark and cited registrations is the inclusion of the term "STARFIGHTER". If ever there was a word owned and paid for by the America people STARFIGHTER is it. First used by the U.S. Air Force in 1958 for the F-104 Starfighter jet aircraft, the term came to denote both the aircraft and its pilots and achieved a level of fame long before 1977 when the first Star Wars movie was released. The next major use of the term STARFIGHTER was in the 1984 movie, The Last Starfighter, which had a profound effect on the science fiction genre and the movie industry as a whole as the first use of CGI (Computer Generated Images). STARFIGHTER is not just descriptive; it is generic in nature, used throughout the science fiction and aviation communities around the world (see attached Evidence). The word/term STARFIGHTER, in any form, was never used in any of the six Star Wars movies. The cited registrant made 3 movies and waited 23 years before trying to register the mark as STAR WARS STARFIGHTER in August of 2000, US Reg. No. 2843398. The cited registrant is hoping that no one challenges their use of the Cited Marks as they attempt to gain an unfair business advantage over the rest of their industry by trademarking a generic word use by aviation enthusiasts and more science fiction aficionados everywhere than just the registrant’s own overzealous fans. The inclusion of the additional term COMMAND creates a dramatically different mark in visual appearance, sound of the marks, and the commercial impression created by the marks. Clearly the term COMMAND is of central significance in relation to the online story and the goods marketed and sold under the STARFIGHTER COMMAND Mark, further distinguishing Applicant's Mark...
 
Starfleet Starfighter Corps

The top 10 starfighters in sci-fi movies and television

Star Trek: Starfighters

From the List of fictional spacecraft From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
In the Star Wars universe, a starfighter is a blanket term for all small combat space craft, regardless of shields, hyperspace capability, weaponry (unless it carries none), armor, maneuverability and crew...

Actually, it is in this universe and it seems like they are trying claim rights to the meaning as well as the word.
 
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If there is a legal matter to be discussed, there are better venues for the topic than a general science fiction fantasy forum.

Thread closed. Comments to PM
 
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