Hi fellow-forumers,

Guess what, I received a very polite private message informing me that the term "French Tuesdays" was a trademark of some organisation or whatever (here is their homepage: frenchtuesdays.com/home.asp, type www in front) and they kindly asked me to refer to the French meetings taking place in Budapest on Tuesday nights in some other way.

By some strange coincidence I happen to know a bit about trademark law and would be very surprised if they could sue me for using a plain English term in a non-commercial context. Next thing you'll know they'll be suing me for speaking English at all.

The gentleman was very polite so I decided to change the title of my thread but I'm sure we'll be exchanging a couple of mails in the near future. To start with, they forgot to point out which law is supposed to confer any rights on them. For example a US trademark will not be infringed by use in Europe.

I don't wish to go into details but I find it sad that some companies should try to stop me calling the get togethers of a group of French-speaking people meeting each other in a strictly informal manner on Tuesday nights by a name best describing their happenings - French Tuesday. I wonder if the use of "Mardis Français" are prohibited too (means the same but in French) that's how they call their meetings.

It's such a sad world really. The organisers of the "Mardis Français" - two Hungarian girls - never wanted or got more recompense for their efforts than a simple thank you. And when I try to inform others about their evenings I'm told that the use of "Mardis Français" in English is forbidden.

Lamentable...
Sophie

Hi Sophie,

I would have asked the guy who contacted you to let you have proof that the trade mark 'french tuedays " is registered in Hungary.

You are not using it commercially.

I am having a "South African Tuesday" today after the long week-end...

(Let's see who complains about this...)

I would make a small change and call it: "Frenchy Tuesdays";

or change it to Hungarian.

Regards,

Bill
(South Africa)

Hi bill,

Your instincts are right, they do not have a registered trademark in Hungary nor in the European Community as a matter of fact. Even if they had they could not prevent calling a friendly meeting of French speaking people falling on Tuesday nights as "French Tuesdays" if there is no commercial activity associated with these meetings. According to all European trademark laws and regulations the use of a trademark can only be prohibited in the course of trade. Which was not the case with the informal French meetings taking place in Budapest.

However, we decided to remove the expression "French Tuesdays" from the title of that specific thread, as I had little time for giving intellectual property rights courses for ignorant proprietors of US trademarks. For, sadly enough, they did manage to get a trademark for this commonplace English expression.

Alice