Forums >General Running>Active Sues RunSignUp for “Couch to 5K”
When active bought coolrunning, they bought the rights to the name. And proceeded to not give any credit whatsoever to the dudes involved with it. Because they are active and they are dicks.
Was the name ever trademarked or the program copyrighted? If not then Active could not purchase the rights to the name and anyone is free to use it.
Active has trademarked it. That's why they are being aggressive.
From he blog post linked in the OP:
In addition, the term “Couch to 5K” has been very widely used since it first came into use in 1996, and Active registered the trademark in 2010. We discussed the background of this term with the original developers of the training program, Dave Camire (Cool Running Founder and Yankee Timing owner) and Josh Clark (who worked with Dave on the Cool Running website). Before Dave sold Cool Running to Active in 2007, the term had become very widespread. In fact, two of the running stores we contacted that had multiple training programs on our site said that they had used the term since about 2003 and 2006.
Using the Wayback Machine to look at internet archives, it is simple to find websites like Beginner Triathlete that had a Couch to 5K Training Program in 2004
IMHO a cease and desist that is complied with should be enough in this situation but active is going for the jugular. That's what makes them dicks. Damages here are minimal but they are going for a maximal and a punitive result against a little guy. It appears that's part of their business model. If you support such ways of conducting business by all means support them. If this doesn't not align with your personal beliefs then it's important to know how active operates when choosing how to spend your money.
I am surprised that a trademark was granted in 2010 when the term has been in use by many different organizations since 1996. I suspect there might be a case for the courts invalidating the trademark.