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[bre365]

I'm just going to come out and say it...can a trademark of a NYC neighborhood be upheld in the court of law.

I had designed some t-shirts with the name "Lower East Side" on the front and the tagline "Live The Life". I had my t-shirts on a web site and the site was recently served with a stop and desist letter from a company called Lower East Side teez. So the site pulled my t-shirts.

Can using the name of trademark for a NYC neighborhood name 'Lower East Side' be upheld in the court of law? The name 'Lower East Side' is a generic name that is also displayed on the MTA subway map as well as the name of a subway station '2nd Avenue - Lower East Side'.

Also, I grew up on the Lower Side of Manhattan so displaying the name on my t-shirts was a show of pride. It is the neighborhood I love, the one I like to tell people I am from.

Do I have to obey the stop and desist letter?

[OMG IP]

You are confusing a lot of things here.

While "Lower East Side" might be descriptive to a geography, it is hardly descriptive to a T-shirt.  Since the company name ends with 'teez', I am assuming there goods are t-shirts/shirts.  That's why they had a problem with your t-shirts and the same mark.

What makes you think someone in that company didn't have the same idea as you, only that they came up with it 5 years before you?

[JSonnabend]

It's entirely possible that the complaining party is not using "Lower East Side" as a mark and therefore has rights.  It is also entirely possible that even if they are using the mark, your use is not a trademark use and therefore not infringing. 

We would need more facts to make a better determination, but if the mark is really "Lower East Side", then you should not post anything further here.

- Jeff