And this is exactly why companies protect their trademarks. A site called discord.io which offered services on top of Discord but wasn't affiliated with it in any way (but tricked users into believing so by using its logo and screenshots) should have been nipped in the bud a long time ago.
Apparently, this sort of thing happened to Mr. Beast with regards to Mr. Beast Burger. Even though his agreements/contracts forbade the company making the virtual restaurant supplies from doing so, that company trademarked his likeness and brand in half a dozen foreign countries. He's currently suing them for damages, and for not paying him the agreed amount for his participation. (Apparently, they had paid him $0!)
He created the idea at the beginning of the pandemic. His thought process was that the Mr Beast brand would allow smaller stores to carry his product and incentivise people to buy take out from those shops and help during lockdowns.
I don't believe the contract between him and VDC is out outlining the contractual obligations, SLAs, trademark and marketing issues etc.
Not really anything super wrong with it, other than perhaps it would be harder to air grievances with them because there’s usually nowhere to go, and QC issues.
“Ghost Kitchens” have a more nefarious connotation than “delivery only” though because often it will be a single kitchen yet be advertised as many distinct restaurants. I saw one in one major city that was something like fifteen “different restaurants” operating from the same small space, which is sketchy.
But I think the person to whom you’re responding was relying more on the word “thousands” here. So given the connotation I think opening thousands of these things is pretty sketchy for some random YouTube personality with presumably no experience with restaurants to be opening simultaneously.
should be no different than any other franchisee. If you are worried about them ruining your reputation then you should QC them with secret shoppers, inspectors, etc.
(Don't read if you don't want spoilers. Exit Through the Gift Shop is phenomenal and should be watched without knowing about this guy. Watch it, then read the Wikipedia article for yet another surprise.)
Try to register a company called Apple that builds iPhone apps and you will find out pretty quick how well a sector-specific trademark can be enforced.
And then when we go and search in USPTO we can see the registrations they have for the name “Discord”
For example they have
> Word Mark DISCORD
> Goods and Services IC 045. US 100 101. G & S: Social networking services in the field of gaming. FIRST USE: 20181000. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20181000
> Goods and Services IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: online game services, namely, providing on-line computer games; organizing community cultural events; organizing community sporting events, organizing educational seminars, workshops, and conferences in the field of communications, online gaming, online communities and social media; providing non-downloadable webinars in the field of communications, online gaming, online communities and social media
> IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: rental of computer game programs and computer game software; online game services, namely, providing temporary use of online non-downloadable game software; providing computer game subscription-based temporary use of non-downloadable game software
And they have another few as well probably. Didn’t read all of them.
With this Discord can protect themselves and their reputation within their own verticals.
Other people can still have a decent chance of being able to register a trademark for an unrelated product or service named “Discord”, as long as it is noticeably unrelated to the existing marks.
So for example maybe I could start a theatre and get a trademark named “Discord” accepted for my theatre.
A long time ago I registered windowsupdate.ms and put a small timeline there about the technological advancements we've made to windows over time— from holes in the wall, to grease paper, to bullet proof glass.
This is going to get harder unless the US government or US tech companies censor the Internet to block ones that don't follow US affiliated trademark law. Which I hope you wouldn't support.
