Back in 2010 , the US Patent and Trademark Office award Citigroup a earmark for “ thankyou , ” which the party uses for quotation bill services . Today the companionship is process AT&T over its own enjoyment of the terms “ thanks ” and “ thanks AT&T. ” hold in the date , because this is n’t April Fool ’s .
Earlier this month AT&T announced a new rewards program called Thanks AT&T which provides customers thing like 2 - for-1 movie slate . This did n’t go over well with Citi ’s lawyers since Citi has its own rewards program called ThankYou Citi . Citigroup even ownsthankyou.comif you ’d like to feel a little more sick to your stomach .
As further evidence that our intellectual property law are one giant joke , not only did the Trademark Office give Citi an single commercial rightfulness to use one of the most rough-cut phrases in the English language for credit visiting card , now Citi thinks that it can go after another company for using the phrase in asimilar way .
I ’m sure Citigroup and others will point out that the company had the cunning idea of removing the space in between the lyric “ thank ” and “ you ” but that does n’t seem to be at issue here . Also , if you ’re making that argument , you should be fed to gerontological shark with really dumb tooth . When a smart set yield an sole auspices on its most vernacular face of gratitude to a bank for employment in commerce , something has gone very , very wrong .
As Reuterspoints out , Citigroup filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan . The causa seeks to check AT&T from using the term “ thanks AT&T ” and “ thanks ” in their marketing .
If you still ca n’t believe that Citigroup was concede a stylemark for Thankyou ( I could n’t either ) , I ’ve include a screenshot from the US Patent and Trademark Office below . What a caper .
AT&TTrademark
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