February 2014 Update on 21st Century Digital Group Trademark '21st Century Digital'
This 21st Century Digital® trademark update is published February 2014 specifically to address the 11/12/2013 Publication in the 11/12/13 USPTO Official Gazette USPTO of Trademark Application #85794073 by third party non-affiliate, rock legend Neil Young (to register trademark 21st Century Digital Group's flagship trademark, '21st Century Digital' for use in commerce.
Rock legend Neil Young's application to trademark '21st Century Digital' published in the USPTO Official Gazette on his birthday, November 12, 2013 (the date '11/12/13' also had some fame of its own, given the sequence 11, 12, 13...)
I am a pretty much a fan of rock legend Neil Young (Buffalo Springfield, Crosby Stills & Nash)(who isn't?) as I am pretty much a fan of rock and roll in general…..Young recently stated that his soon to be released album 'A Letter Home" contains songs previously ..."..recorded on ancient electro mechanical technology…" I personally would have no problem if Neil Young wanted to register that to sell digital data and hardware "ancient electro mechanical technology" ..... but I will need to oppose his application to trademark "21st Century Digital" to sell digital data and hardware and related goods and services. Mr. Young proposes to use the trademark to sell an alternative (superior) device to an MP3 player, and the music which playes on it. Mr. Young proposes to register the trademark '21st Century Digital' for his exclusive use to do so. Because his application published on 11/12/13, and because I have a 90 day extension to Oppose, I need to file my Opposition with the USPTO Trial and Appeal Board by March 12, 2014 in keeping with the purpose of Publication in the Official Gazette. If I do not Oppose, the Mark will register to Neil Young; if I do Oppose, Mr. Young and his attorneys can either choose to honor my Opposition, or, to litigate and the USPTO Trial and Appeals Board would decide whether my opposition is valid or if the Mark should register to Neil Young.
Here is an image of the USPTO Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Website as to my person {Daniel M Rosenblum} and Neil Young's Application to register Mark "21st Century Digital"as of February 26 2014 (the image shows that I might still file an Opposition in my personal name, and/or in the name of 3 businesses, TMTP, TTS, or, 21st Century Digital)::
While Trademark law is more complicated, if there were two products for sale,would you know which came from my company and which from Neil Young's ?
OR
Mr. Young's music player which his company intends to release, I believe, in the near future, has the name "Pono", and, while his application is pending at the USPTO the company website is using the Rosenblum trademark 21st Century Digital on the mypono.com website, as it appeared in early 2014:
The Pono website contains two pages., a home page and an 'About' page. The product is not yet released. The about page contains text, including the following paragraph:
"Miraculously, there's a wealth of music & soul (or if you must, "data") trapped on millions of recordings made over the last half century, that we're hoping to unleash for the very first time. "
Here, the Pono enterprise equates the music and soul which Pono hopes to unleash as "data", which Rosenblum believes also to be true and any reasonable person would agree, that the Pono venture is insofar as the sale of data. The format of data, the hardware associated with digital data. The Rosenblum 21st Century Digital Group initiative, agenda, mission, and use of the brand name
The history of my Sole Proprietorship 21st Century Digital begins on a Monday morning, 12/9/1996, when I established Twenty First Century Digital as a Sole Proprietorship at 60 Centre Street in Manhattan. First thing Monday morning December 9th 1996 I went straight from my apartment on 13th Street at Union Square to City Hall - one stop on the Lexington Avenue Express 4 or 5 subway- and established the Sole Proprietorship 'Twenty First Century Digital' at the New York County Clerk's Office Room 109B in the basement of 60 Centre Street , the New York State Supreme Court building.
An image of my 12/9/1996 Business Certificate form X-201filing for a sole proprietorship can be viewed below.
Here there are several certificates my trademark is based on; note also that there is a long established history 1996 to 2014 which colors the certificates, not all of which will be reiterated here presently.
There is much history to my enterprise 21st Century Digital, but, here, below are also images of my form T224 Amended Business Certificate 9/7/2007 changing the name of the 12/9/1996 Sole Proprietorship to 21st Century Digital from Twenty First Century Digital, and changing the 5/20/1996 TTS Industries Certificate, and several address changes are represented by certificate images below- where varied business took place under the brand name(s).
There are also images of the 2009 and 2011 US Patent and Trademark Registrations of 21st Century Digital Trademark in USPTO Commercial Classes 35, 36, 38, and 42 (Financial Services, Telecommunications, Advertising, and Internet Related Research and Development), and my patent application for a "21st Century Digital™ Network". Note as well that an additional trademark registration in Class 9 received a Notice of Allowance in Class 9 but I failed to follow up through registration, although continue to use in Class 9, along with other common law use in addition to the cited statutory registrations:
® 21st Century Digital ™ © 21st Century Digital 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
21st Century Digital ™ is both a common law and statutory trademark. Common law rights in the Mark inhere with the establishment of Sole Proprietorship Twenty First Century Digital by Proprietor Daniel M Rosenblum December 9th 1996 New York New York and continued use to date. Please see above and below for more information on common law trademark use and rights.
21st Century Digital® has four (4) USPTO Trademark Registrations:
USPTO ®™ Registration Number 4,007,885 Registered Aug. 9, 2011 USPTO International Class 35: Advertising and Business
USPTO ®™ Registration Number 4,051,315 Registered Nov. 8, 2011 USPTO International Class 36: Financial Services
USPTO ®™ Registration Number 4,051,315 Registered Nov. 8, 2011 USPTO International Class 38: Telecommunications
USPTO ®™ Registration Number 3,626,967 Registered May 26, 2009 USPTO International Class 42: Computer/Internet R & D
A patent application for a "21st Century Digital™ Network" was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on March 26, 2008 and published on October 1, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office as Publication Number US 2009/0248536 Al; USPTO Publication US 2009/0248536 Al is five (5) pages in entirety including the drawing of the invention and can be viewed on the USPTO website Patent Application Retrieval (PAIR) system. No patent for a "21st Century Digital Network" product granted to date, nor is one pending. The status of the patent application at the United States Patent and Trademark Office is "abandoned" as of March 23rd, 2012, for applicant failure to respond to a USPTO Office Action Notice of Final Rejection September 9 2011. Applicant's most recent filing on USPTO patent application for a "21st Century Digital™ Network", USPTO Publication Number US 2009/0248536 Al, one hundred and fifty two pages regarding the 21st Century Digital Network product was filed July 2011 and is also viewable on the USPTO website Patent Application Retrieval (PAIR) system.