eBay no longer protecting their trademark?

[transactiongeek]

You can use "ebay" in keywords on google now. In fact, eBay is used in zillions of places all over the interent.

I wonder if eBay has lost the trademark to eBay as they are not protecting it.

[KoDe_GuRu]

If they are not going after every infringment then they will have a hard time in the future against bigger violations.

[rogerd]

I guess it depends on the use of the name. If the references are to the real eBay, their trademark may not be endangered. For instance, if I buy an ad for "widgets", call it "Widgets at eBay", and then direct visitors to a widget search or auction at eBay, that wouldn't appear to endanger their trademark.

I'm not a trademark expert, but it seems the greater danger is indiscriminate use of a trademark to refer to a broader class of products or services - some of the oft-cited examples are Scotch tape, Kleenex, and Xerox. In each case, the trademark crept into common usage to describe any product in that category. Hence, if I placed an ad for my own auction site that said, "eBay Your Stuff at RogerdAuction.com", that would be a problem. I guess I haven't paid much attention to how eBay is being used by third parties.

[mgream]

In trademark terms this is called "dilution", where a mark becomes used to refer to the "class of goods or services" and ceases to act as a "badge of origin".

I doubt this is happening for ebay. I think it's more of a risk for google, if people start to say "i googled the result", when they used altavista, google, alltheweb or whatever other engine. The test in a court of law is evidential, relying on various experts and information to determine whether a mark really has become dilute. Once dilute, then the trademark owner could not take action against indiscriminate use of the mark: e.g. a commercial advertisement that referred to "got a problem with your hoovering, call our house cleaning expertrs" may not be actionable because the term hoover is dilute.

In the case of using trademarks for keywords, this was recently the focus of a high profile dispute by playboy. I belive the ruling found that there is only a problem when the trademark is using in a deceptive manner, e.g. in the case of ebay if the mark were used to attract searchers to a competitive service. To give an example, if you are selling widgets on ebay, and you buy a keyword "widgets on ebay" then you may be okay. I think also that it depends upon the extent to which the trademark owner - ebay - allows their trademark to be used in this form - I would suggest that it is good for their business and they don't want to stop it. What they do want to stop is anything that leads to dilution of the mark, e.g. adverts that referred to "ebaying: your introduction to the technique of using online auctions".

[Blue_Wizard]

Trademark law operates upon precedent= who used it first in commerce.

If your initial trademark is accepted and uncontested for six years, regardless of whether or not your renew it, you have precedent to block someone else from claiming it. Although renewal does make it easier to leverage in court.