It's all balls apparently.

That's cute. Unless the hole openings have soft edges, it looks like an invitation to a lot of finger abrasions.

Posted By: joshs

Posted By: evolvealreadyNow we know what they have been doing for all these years.

Well it is for kids 4 and older. That's a high standard for the go to team.

True

4 years +? Bet I could do it in less than that.

At least something useful with that name.

Steorn are likely pretty low on lawyer chow. Their 2009 CRO filing is now coming up on six months late.

It seems odd to me but they both have live trademark registrations in the US. The trademark for Orbo is also registered for a canine chew toy and one or two other things. All of these are listed as live registrations when you search the trademark database.
How is that possible? I obviously don't understand trademarks as well as I thought I did.

But Steorn do not have a product or service or technology named Orbo, how can they own a trademark at all?

I've working on a documentary about copyright and trademarks. It's mainly about Spanish legislation, but I made some international research. I presume this applies to the US and worldwide:

When you create a song, it's yours, no one's elses, in most countries. You don't have to register it. In theory, you don't have to register it. This isn't exactly like that in the US. If someone wants to make use of your intangible creative work, he must ask you by definition, unless you leave that choice to someone else (Creative Commons, music companies, movie studios, book publishers). Registry helps you to prove your ownership or to disprove other people's claims about it.

With trademarks, it's completely different. You have to register a trademark in EACH individual country. Worldwide registry costs tens of thousands of dollars. In Spain it's a bout 600 euros and you have to renew it regularly. Trademarks also exist for different categories, so a name can be applied to potato chips and to phone antennas, and both can be approved and coexist.

BUT, in many cases, you can deny a new trademark similar to yours if you consider it can drive to a misunderstanding. For instance, try making a car called Superman, or a comic book hero called Audi. When you have registered a trademark, you usually get notifications by your registrar company when similar names apply. There's a period for consideration and if no one opposes, it's approved. If someone opposes, there can be negotiations or it can be decided by a judge (or probaly an expert, I don't know it court is the direct path for this).

So the history with Orbo probably is: Either Steorn or the toy company registered Orbo first, and then the first one at some point got a notification letter from their trademark lawyers about the other company trying to do the same in another category. The choice was to oppose or to do nothing, and they did nothing.

It is my opinion that Steorn could never have won a trademark infringement against PCSTRU. However he did the wise thing and avoided the pain and potential expense of threatened litigation by making the modification that so endears us.