💬 Join us to post & get advice from 50,000 HOA & Condo leaders.

Create Free Account →

⚡ Takes 30 seconds

Already a member? Log in

SriG (Michigan)
Posts: 1
Posted:
We have rentals in a Short term rental community. The majority of the owners rent short-term. The name of the community is "ABC Crossing Resort" (fictitious for this discussion). The HOA recently (some 17 years after the first home was built) trademarked the name "ABC Crossing Resort" and sent an email to all homeowners asking that they must reach out to the HOA if the trademarked name is being used in marketing, mainly in any social media headings, groups or any marketing material or advertisement headings. For example, if you have "ABC Crossing Rentals" or "ABC Crossing HomeOwners" in the title, they are objecting saying that it is a trademark violation.

As the owners of one such site, we right-away added a legal disclaimer to all pages of the site and on all social media pages suggesting:
"This site is neither endorsed, nor sponsored by, nor affiliated with "ABC Crossing Resort".
Under the Nominative Fair Use Clause, we believe we should be able to mention "ABC Crossing Resort Rentals" or "Rentals in ABC Crossing Resort" while marketing our product - which is our rentals (plural).

The trademarked phrase is being used by 100's of 3rd party agencies in the title of webpages etc.(and some large OTAs like Booking-dot-com and expedia-dot-com) as it is a popular community for rentals. I do not see the HOA going after any of those... just the little owners who are renting the homes.

Wanted to see if any of you have ever come across this situation and any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
JohnT38 (South Carolina)
Posts: 1,631
Posted:
My understanding is they can use the name as long as it includes the trademark symbol. I didn't think it prevented the name from being used. No idea if I'm right but I suspect that this would be easy to determine using google.

🎯 You've read this entire discussion

Join the conversation with 50,000 HOA & Condo Leaders:

  • ✓ Ask follow-up questions
  • ✓ Share your experience
  • ✓ Get expert advice
  • ✓ Access 350,000 discussions
Create Free Account →

⚡ Takes 30 seconds

Already a member? Log in here