Lawsuit filed against Jim Stoppani and PhD Fitness

[The Solution]

Lawsuit filed against Jim Stoppani and PhD Fitness

Thanks to the very onto it team over at PricePlow, today it has got out that Jim Stoppani of Jym Supplement Science is being sued by its exclusive retailer . As strange as it all sounds, the point of the lawsuit is even more interesting than you’d think. From what we can gather Bodybuilding.com is saying that it owns the “JYM” trademark, not Jim Stoppani himself or his company PhD Fitness.

The massive online retailer claims to have created the mark back way back in March of 2013, then a few months later it entered into an agreement with Jim Stoppani. Since then the mark has been used to promote all of the well-known supplements that have made so much noise such as the pre-workout Pre Jym and protein powder Pro Jym.

From Stack3d.

 

[danielmoo]

Interested to see how this pans out.

 

[TreatnHerRigt]

Great article about this on priceplow! Lots left out though. Looking forward to seeing the results of this

 

[cheftepesh1]

In for this

 

[TrainerTone]

So does this mean JYM supplements are no longer available on bb.com??

 

[Plex78]

That guy Stoppani is a work out genius, not too sure about the supps.

 

[NewAgeMayan]

shoulda called Shred JYM,

SLYM JYM

 

[Plex78]

shoulda called Shred JYM,

SLYM JYM

Lol that does make sense

 

[danielmoo]

shoulda called Shred JYM,

SLYM JYM

LOL

 

[Chuck Diesel]

bb.com will lose on this one. Any variation of words with "JYM" is a trademark of phd fitness going back to March 2013. Unless bb.com started selling Jym products back in like 2012......JYM is what we call a "strong" mark because it was a word not used in class 005 until these products, it also has no alternate meaning. So it cannot be used else where in class 005 or 035 in any variation, slim jym, JYM nastics...etc.

 

[Chuck Diesel]

The plot thickins upon further research, no one has a mark for Jym. It was refused because Jym has a pseudo mark of 'GYM'. So it means you cannot TM the word "gym".

In this case, applicant’s mark is “JYM,” which is an obvious and intentional misspelling of “GYM.” The attached Internet and dictionary evidence establishes that 1) “GYM” refers to a gymnasium, i.e., a facility for exercise, and 2) “GYM” is commonly used to refer to a type of dietary or nutritional supplement used at a gym while exercising (see attachments).

This means the logo cannot be Trademarked. But Jim owns JYM sports science so thats all that counts. IF bb.com thinks they own JYM, the court will say "no one can own the word JYM but you are however in violation of JYM sports science." Because the marks are similar, not in look but in word mark.

Its complicated but Jim owns the mark based on Jym sports science. Jim's own registration for "JYM" as it appears on the bottles was rejected by the USPTO, but it doesn't matter, the strongest mark is a word mark, not an image mark.

 

[Chuck Diesel]

The plot thickins upon further research, no one has a mark for Jym. It was refused because Jym has a pseudo mark of 'GYM'. So it means you cannot TM the word "gym".

from uspto when I looked up the JYM mark:
In this case, applicant’s mark is “JYM,” which is an obvious and intentional misspelling of “GYM.” The attached Internet and dictionary evidence establishes that 1) “GYM” refers to a gymnasium, i.e., a facility for exercise, and 2) “GYM” is commonly used to refer to a type of dietary or nutritional supplement used at a gym while exercising (see attachments).

This means the logo cannot be Trademarked. But Jim owns JYM sports science so thats all that counts. IF bb.com thinks they own JYM , the court will say "no one can own the word JYM but you are however in violation of JYM sports science (if jym sports science is on the bottle)." Because the marks are similar, not in look but in word mark.

Its complicated but Jim owns Jym sports science. Jim's own registration for "JYM" as it appears on the bottles was rejected by the USPTO, but it doesn't matter, the strongest mark is a word mark, not an image mark.

Heres an example. Golds gym was registered a long a$$ time ago in class 005. That means just registering jym wont fly. Uspto marks are based on sound not spelling. Gym and jym is the samething to the uspto. Stopani will prob have to change the name of his products. Anyone can use JYM. Just not jym supplement science.

The J instead of the G means nothing.

 

[ManimalPatB]

Weird. Interesting stuff though