HN Explorer

Ask HN: Why was Meetup.com allowed to trademark the word “meetup”?

11 points by Meetup ↗ HN
There are numerous examples of companies such as Hotels.com that tried to trademark their domain name, and were unsuccessful.

Why is Meetup.com allowed to have ownership rights of a very common English word that simply describes the service they provide?

According to Meetup.com's trademark guidelines, 'The word "Meetup" and the other Meetup Marks, such as our Logos, designs, slogans and names are registered trademarks or trademarks of Meetup, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.'

IANAL, but to me, this seems highly anti-competitive because it suggests they could sue anyone who uses the word "meetup" to describe a... meetup. Or sue a competitor that called themselves "FantasticMeetups.com" for example.

See:

1. http://www.mbbp.com/news/generic-trademark

2. https://help.meetup.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001655932-Meetup-Trademark-Guidelines

12 comments

[ 2.3 ms ] story [ 42.4 ms ] thread
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
keiferski
According to Dictionary.com, the specific noun “meetup” (as opposed to the verb “to meet up”) was actually popularized by the company.

Origin of meetup 2000-05; meet1 + up, popularized by Meetup , name of a website

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/meetup

shoo
yes, i agree, my understanding is that meetup isn't a word. well, it wasn't. now from popular usage it is.

similarly, google is allowed to trademark the verb google, and xerox is allowed to trademark the verb xerox.

consier ngram data for frequency of "meetup" versus "meet" , and "meetup" in isolation:

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=meetup%2C+meet...

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=meetup&case_in...

Meetup
Meetup.com was founded in 2002. Doesn't the graph you posted show that the term "meetup" was in use prior to that?

Regardless, nobody used the term "google" or anything similar to refer to doing a search on the internet prior to Google's inception.

I think it would be a better analogy if "go ogle" was already a common phrasal verb for searching the internet and Google came along, removed the space and trademarked "google" essentially preventing anyone from using the original phrasal verb henceforth.

hluska
I find it interesting that you would register such an obviously inflammatory name (eight months ago) and then never use it until now. Even more interesting is the fact that you have received two very reasonable answers and continue to argue against them with very poorly thought out arguments.

The facts are:

1.) Meetup is not and has never been a word in the English language.

2.) A trademark is a very distinct vehicle with particular uses.

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
Meetup
If the difference between the trademarked word "meetup" and the non-trademarked term "meet up" is a single space, somebody could register a domain like "meetupwithfriends.com", call their company "Meet Up With Friends" and not face litigation from Meetup.com?
keiferski
IANAL, however typically this depends on the likelihood of your business being confused with the original trademark holder. In theory, if your company is in an entirely different industry and sells unrelated products, you’ll be fine.

However in real life, corporations have near-unlimited budgets and will sue you anyway. See the Nissan.com saga for an example.

http://www.nissan.com/Lawsuit/The_Story.php

chung-leong
The company that chooses to call itself "Meet Up With Friends" had it coming. The English language has a gazillion 4-word permutations. Why choose one that overlaps a well-known mark? In a civilized society people stay out of each other's way. If I've taken this spot then you go take some other spot.
dronescanfly
That's what this whole argument is about.

Why on earth is it OK that this spot could have been taken at all?

chung-leong
It's an argument about nothing. A trademark is a repository for a company's reputation. A new company has none. If it's unable to use its preferred mark, no harm is done. That is, of course, unless its intention all along is to steal the limelight of another.