I've been using something similar for years with Citibank called Virtual Account Numbers. You can specify the expiry date and put money limits on the virtual account. Had something similar for my Discover card (I think?) but the program got abandoned a long time ago.
 

Dave

Staff member
So? So it's the one place's logo. Tough shit. TH is making cookies with smilie faces. NOT a trademark infringement.
 
I'm with Dave on this one. No one is going to be confused by Tim Horton's putting a smiley face on a cookie.

http://www.vegastrademarkattorney.com/2007/11/cookie-controversy-sure-to-make-you.html
So it all comes down to the strength of Eat ‘N Park’s smiley mark, which I think is drawn in to question given the fame of the other smiley logo.
Basically, from what I gather, this trademark attorney thinks the Eat 'N Park's mark is a weak trademark, since it's already so similar to the traditional smiley face we all know and love.

And the case for trademark dilution is weak because
Eat ‘N Park’s mark would not be deemed “famous” because it is not “widely recognized by the general consuming public of the United States as a designation of source of the goods or services of the mark’s owner.”
The lawyer makes another good point:
In addition, bakeries across the United States bake and sell similar “smiley face” cookies – is Eat ‘N Park’s going to start sending cease and desist letters to them all?
Trademark isn't like copyright. With copyright, you can be selective about enforcement. For instance, an author can let people write fanfic, but if someone writes some fic you don't like, you can use the law to get them to take it off the internet. Not so, with trademark. If you don't actively pursue protection of your trademark, you can lose it. And if it can be shown in court that Eat 'N Park hasn't tried to stop people from using the smiley, and instead have only selectively been enforcing it, they can lose their trademark.

https://www.trademarknow.com/blog/six-frustrating-ways-lose-trademark-rights
Your Mark Loses Distinctiveness
Since trademarks are issued to preserve distinctiveness, anything diluting the meaning of a mark can be grounds for cancellation.
All of that said, I think trying to trademark a smiley face on a cookie is ridiculous, and I'm totally fine with Tim Horton's having a smiley face cookie. It doesn't even look like Eat 'N Park's trademarked cookie.

It should be noted that Eat 'N Park has sued twice before (from what I can find) over their smile cookie, but both lawsuits were settled before going to court. I think that if they were to sue in this instance, and go all the way to court, things might not turn out so well in Eat 'N Park's favor.
 
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Are they competitors? Tim's is doing this in all of it's 4500 stores across the globe, not just the area where Park and Eat are located.
 
I don't know if this link is to the same article I read (EDIT: it wasn't) but in the one I saw a few months ago, they explain that the hardest part was finding a bank willing to do this, because all the "virtual" numbers are actually sub-accounts of the one main business account that was issued to DoNotPay.

--Patrick
 
Is method of quantifying small? Like we can see so many colours can you smell so many smells. And is there a spectrum of smell?
 
“Small” Ian measured in nanometers and such, or in things like arc seconds if distant.

There are supposed to be a set of “base smells” which can be combined to make odors like RGB makes colors, but the idea of an odor printer never really caught on.

—Patrick
 

GasBandit

Staff member
If some scamp turns it around, can you ever leave?
Technically, it does not say "do not cross this line," it says "Go away." The mat cannot keep me inside the house, as that would be preventing me from going "away."

So, more like, if some scamp turns it around, I am homeless.
 
Technically, it does not say "do not cross this line," it says "Go away." The mat cannot keep me inside the house, as that would be preventing me from going "away."

So, more like, if some scamp turns it around, I am homeless.
I feel like this is some kind of Sims trick, like removing the pool's ladder.

Good luck, Gas. Go build a rocket.
 
Done all the laundry, made the beds, swept the house, did all the dishes, did the recycling, took out the trash, cleaned the downstairs and loft cleaned the cat litter, scrubbed the toilets and completed a two week grocery shop, so I am ready to go on my 12 day work trip!

:zoid:
 
My husband is out of town for the week and my daughter is in the full bloom of her hormonal teenage mood swings. Today she is in literal tears because I'm not putting away the groceries the way she thinks I should.
 
Done all the laundry, made the beds, swept the house, did all the dishes, did the recycling, took out the trash, cleaned the downstairs and loft cleaned the cat litter, scrubbed the toilets and completed a two week grocery shop, so I am ready to go on my 12 day work trip!

:zoid:
Are you for hire; what is your hourly rate and do you do windows?
 
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