I was quoted by Digital News Asia in their article “Unknown Caribbean company files for MH17 trademark<\/a>” published on 22 July 2014. <\/p>\n – Trademark applications filed for ‘MH17’ & ‘MH370’ for use in EU IN THE wake of the MH17 tragedy, reports have already surfaced<\/a> about cybercriminals taking advantage with fake Facebook pages being created in the name of victims, for money.<\/p>\n Now it appears opportunism has reared its ugly head in another way \u2013 Digital News Asia (DNA) has learnt that claims have been filed to trademark the terms ‘MH17’ and ‘MH370.’<\/p>\n MH370 was the number of the Malaysian Airlines flight that inexplicably disappeared on March 8, remaining one of the aviation industry’s greatest mysteries. The Beijing-bound flight from Kuala Lumpur was carrying 12 crew members and 227 passengers, the majority of whom were China nationals. The search and rescue operation has yet to find remains of the craft.<\/p>\n Malaysia’s national carrier, already reeling from that disaster and a disappointing financial year, then experienced another disaster when Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over Ukrainian airspace on July 17, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board.<\/p>\n Details of the ‘MH17’ filing, submitted on July 17 itself, were found on the European Trade Mark and Design Network<\/a> website and the application under examination. The ‘MH370’ filing submitted on May 2 was found on the Justia Trademarks site<\/a>, and according to the site, has yet to be assigned a case examiner.<\/p>\n According to available details, the same company, Seyefull Investments Limited which is incorporated in Belize City, filed both applications.<\/p>\n Belize City is the largest city in the Central American country of Belize and was once the capital of the former British Honduras. It is located at the mouth of the Belize River on the coast of the Caribbean.<\/p>\n The scope of usages listed within both applications is wide ranging: From conferences, exhibitions and competitions; to education and instruction, and entertainment services (namely, the provision of continuing programmes, segments, movies, and shows delivered by television, radio, satellite and the Internet).<\/p>\n DNA columnist and intellectual property lawyer Foong Cheng Leong (pic) noted that trademark rights are limited to the goods and services chosen by the proprietor.<\/p>\n \u201cHere, the applicant is registering the mark MH17 for all sorts of products in the European Union. By being the registered proprietor, they have the rights over the mark [when it comes to] the registered goods and services in the European Union.<\/p>\n “They may stop people from using the mark or ask for payment in the European Union,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Asked whether these trademark claims were the groundwork for potential ‘trademark trolling’ efforts, Foong said that he would not be able to determine whether they are trademark trolls without a deep investigation into the entity in question.<\/p>\n \u2018Trademark troll\u2019 is a pejorative term for any entity that attempts to register a trademark without intending to use it, and who then threatens to sue others who use that mark.<\/p>\n It is a different beast from a \u2018patent troll,\u2019 also called a patent assertion entity (PAE), a person or company who enforces patent rights against accused infringers in an attempt to collect licensing fees, but does not manufacture products or supply services based upon the patents in question, thus engaging in ‘economic rent-seeking.’<\/p>\n Claiming a stake in crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n This is not the first time an attempt has been made to claim the intellectual property associated with a global event. Among the most notable was when a businessman named Moti Shniberg tried to trademark<\/a> the term ‘September 11, 2001’ … on the day itself.<\/p>\n Shniberg said he had filed for the trademark for “charitable purposes,” but the US Patent and Trademark Office ultimately rejected the application. It was one of about two dozen reportedly filed trademarks related to the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.<\/p>\n Lawyers and trademark industry watchers DNA spoke to for this article noted that it is quite common for people to file trademarks based on words related to current affairs.<\/p>\n A trademark industry observer, who asked not to be named, said that such filings are \u201cfairly common, but also fairly pointless\u201d because they usually get rejected and lead to bad public relations for the people or company which filed the trademark, as well as for the trademark industry as a whole.<\/p>\n He said that the case in question was \u201canother sign of companies or individuals taking advantage of tragedies using the trademark register.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t know the reason for these, it’s probably opportunistic from what I can tell \u2013 the fact the MH17 one was filed on Thursday definitely suggests that.<\/p>\n \u201cMy guess would be it’s a shell company of some kind. The company’s other trademark is for ‘Mata Hara 308<\/a>‘, which appears to be linked to this website <\/a>which mentions MH370, and has the same image for its browser tab as the Seyefull website, so I think they’re linked.\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Asked whether Malaysia Airlines (MAS) should be concerned about such moves, he pointed to another filing made by Aoan International Pty Ltd<\/a> to register an Australian trademark for ‘MH370’ in March that is due to be accepted on July 30.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, it seems that Malaysia Airlines is concerned about this kind of thing because 10 days ago, [Malaysia Airlines] itself registered a trademark<\/a> in Australia for \u2018MH370′,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\nUnknown Caribbean company files for MH17 trademark<\/strong>
\nGabey Goh
\nJul 22, 2014<\/p>\n
\n– Case of companies or individuals using trademark register to take advantage of a tragedy<\/p>\n