Does Scentsy own the word tarts?

[pixie]

A candle friend of mine is under the impression that Scentsy owns the word "tart". She thinks that all other candle and tart makers must use the word "melts" (or some other word) to describe their tarts/melts. She told me scentsy trademarked the word tarts. Is that true? Has anyone else ever heard of that?

[scifichik]

Actually, it is Yankme who owns the trademark. This is from their website:

Yankee Candle retains all rights to its trademarks, trade names, brand names, trade dress and other such intellectual property, including without limitation Yankee®, Yankee Candle®, Housewarmer®, Sampler®, Tart®, Wax Potpourri Tarts®, Country Kitchen®, Car Jars®, Country Classics®, Kindle Candles®, Aroma Formula™, Yankee® Home Classics™, Frosted Favorites™ and the fragrance names of many of our products, as indicated, all of which are registered and/or common law trademarks of Yankee Candle in the United States and in other countries. These trademarks, together with all associated service marks, slogans and other Yankee Candle product names, graphics, logos, service names and custom icons are included within the intellectual property of Yankee Candle and all rights thereto are expressly reserved. Yankee Candle's trademarks and intellectual property may not be used by any third party without the express written permission of the Company and, without limiting the foregoing, may not be used in connection with any product or service or in any manner that is likely to or may dilute the strength of the trademark, disparage or discredit Yankee Candle or its products and services, or cause confusion among consumers. Any other trademarks that appear on this site and are not owned by Yankee Candle are the property of their respective owners.

[pixie]

Oh wow, I never heard of that before. She must have got confused between sentsy and yankme but Im really surprised she was right. I thought the word tart was a very general term...not something that could be trademarked. Thanks for the info.

[blacktieaffair]

That, for a lot of us, is a really sore subject ( them trademarking common every day words ). Not sure how anyone on here feels about it, but we've had QUITE a few "discussions" on the Bittercreek boards about it. Yankmee has sent quite a few cease and desist letters to individuals for the use of that word and others.

I'm cooking so I can't look it up right now, but I think they have All Hallow's Eve locked up, and Sugar Cookie, and some other things. Not positive on which ones, but I know it's quite a few words we've used since the dawn of time.

[mzphee]

Wow I didn't know that either, those are common words

[FaithfulScenter]

I didn't know that either! I'll be changing all my labels over to "melt" instead of "tart"!!

[blacktieaffair]

I wish I was joking If any of you are members of the Bittercreek board, you can do a search on it and all sorts of things will pop up and numerous people who have received the C&D order.

Edit : Here is a copy of the C&D letter a lady got, back in 05 :

This company is the owner ofthe trademark TARTS (U.S. Registration No. 1,726,934) covering fragrant wax for use in potpourri burners(a copy of the registration is attached). Federal registration of ths trademark gives this company the fullprtection of the trademark and unfair competition provisions of the Lanham Act, as well as protectionunder state laws governing trademarks and unfair competition.

We recently visited your website, which uses the name "Tarts" when referring to fragrant wax for use in potpourri burners. Your product name uses the trademark protected by our federal registration. Your use of the names "Tarts"on identical or similar goods is a clear infringement of our rights and is likely to cause confusion among customers that your business and products are endorsed by or in some way connected with this company.

The purpose of this letter is to advise you of your infringing acts and to request that you promptly cease and desist from all use of the name"Tarts" or any colorable variation thereof, in connection with fragrant wax for use in potpourri burners. We would prefer to resolve this controversy in an amicable fashion and would, therefore, consider this matter to be satisfactorily resolved if:

(A) You promply sign and return the enclosed copy of this letter indicating your agreement not to use the name "Tart", or any colorable bariation thereof, in connection with the sale, shipment, or advertising of fragrant wax for use in potpourri burners after May 13, 2005; and

( You refrain from any future use of any of the trademarks of The Yankee Candle Company, Inc., in connection with any of your company's products, and

© You actually carry out this agreement.

(( Sorry for the typos, having fumble fingers tonight ))

Also, hold yall's hats............. the word " wickless " is trademarked ( guess by who )

Here is another post on the BC board from the owner at the time, this was written in 99 :

(There's a bunch to the it and I"ll put the link up, but here's the gist of it)

The problem is that the large companies are being granted trademarks on common scent names, such as "Strawberries-n-Cream" and "Sugar Cookie" which are very common food scents, "Christmas Eve" which is the name of a holiday, and "Home Sweet Home" which is a commonly used phrase. They are also trademarking common names of candle types, such as "Cake Candle" and "Tart". Cake Candles, made by frosting a pillar candle with whipped wax, have been being made for years, and have been referred to as "Cake Candles" by crafters and even in craft books since the 1970's. The word Tart is a common shape of a pastry with scalloped edges and has become the common term for the wax potpourri "tarts" that are made to be melted in potpourri burners to scent a room. It is the common names like these that home and small business candle crafters object to being trademarked. Large companies are taking advantage of the fact that they can afford to trademark as many names as they want (which costs $245 just to register each one) whereas most of the smaller candle companies can't. It seems they are attempting to use this as a tool to corner the market and keep these smaller, but ever increasing, competitors from sharing in the sales.

As I understand it, even when a small candle company can purchase a fragrance oil for use in candlemaking from one of the many large fragrance manufacturers, that may be named "Sugar Cookie" etc, the candlemaker cannot technically use that scent name on their candle if another candlemaking company has a it trademarked. The key here is that the trademark is on the name as it pertains to candles, not as it pertains to the oil that scented it. So a supplier can sell an you an OIL called "Sugar Cookie", but that doesn't mean you can call your CANDLE "Sugar Cookie". The manufacturer, seller or creator of the fragrance name can also trademark the name for use on the fragrance oil itself, so that other suppliers cannot copy it.

From website ( you have to sign up I THINK to view ) http://www.candlecauldron.com/trademarks.html

HTH

Edited October 15, 2012 by blacktieaffair

[chuck_35550]

A pastry shop in Tuscaloosa was making pastries with the script A on them and were threatened by the University of Alabama, because they have a trademark on the scripted A! This shop had been doing business with the university for years and was astounded by the threat. They later apologized but I think they got their point across about the letter A.

Steve

[Candybee]

I like the words wax melts and scentarts much better than plain "tarts" anyway.

[blacktieaffair]

WTH.........., ....

Anyway , to Steve... yeah I heard about that.. and there was also some older man who'd been taking photos of the games for many years, and then selling the prints ( blowing them up ) and all of the sudden there was a big tado about it.

When I made my bleeding tapers in the SEC colors, I had on the label " I Bleed Orange and Blue " or " I Bleed Crimson " etc . Sold a TON of those, and the wax dipped TPs at Tannehill and Sweet Potato Festival right out of Tuscaloosa. I did however figure out one thing by reading the licensing rules............ You can make something in their colors, and even put an A or AU or whatever on it....... as long as it is distinguishable from the A that the school uses.

( But at the time I was doing this, you couldn't BUY AU or UA cloth, make something, and sell it, without going through the big wigs. THAT ticked me off because I was wanting to make AU and UA car freshener ornies)

I did call, verify and send pics of what I was doing to make sure.

[Judy, USMC]

Nominal designs are goods that are small in size.

Spammer reported! This one was quite prolific with 33 posts this morning ...

[blacktieaffair]

Thanks Judy!

[Bfly]

I knew they had tarts, but seriously?!? The rest is just outta control! Thanks, cause I would have used common words...smh