[E-trademarks] Name of a living individual

[Carl Oppedahl]

On 9/11/2025 11:45 PM, a listserv member wrote:
> I have a client who bought an apparel company whose trademark is the 
> name of the company's founder -- let's say "BJ".
>
Sounds like what needed to happen, before the client handed over the 
money to buy the company, is somebody making sure that part of what was 
being bought was a piece of paper that addressed this situation.  Part 
of the due diligence (before handing over the money) should have been:

  * checking to see whether BJ is still alive;  and
  * if BJ is still alive, obtaining from BJ a written promise to sign
    any and all needed trademark-related documents in the future.

Sounds like the money got handed over without this having been done.  So 
now (in addition to looking to see who should have done the due 
diligence) the question is how to get some newly filed US trademark 
application for "BJ" to get approved for pub.

I guess an urgent task is to check to see whether BJ is still alive.  If 
not, then just preserve proof of lack-of-life and tell the Examiner that 
"BJ" is not the name of a living individual. Problem solved.

If BJ is still alive but is likely to die within six months, one 
approach would be to file a priority case in some non-US trademark 
office, then at the appropriate time, file the US case, claiming 
priority from the priority case.

Now comes the archaeology task.  We locate the purchase-and-sell 
agreement.  We scrutinize it from top to bottom.  Surely it contains a 
"cleanup" section, something along the lines of:

    After Closing Date, Seller promises to execute any and all documents
    required to effectuate the terms and conditions of this Purchase-and
    Sell agreement.

Except that hopefully it also said "... BJ and Seller promise ...".  Or 
maybe the agreement has a definitions section that defines "Seller" to 
mean "BJ and Seller Entity and their successors-in-interest" or whatever 
made sense at the time.  It would also help if, for example, the 
purchase-and-sell agreement called for some of the closing money to go 
to BJ personally.

So anyway, depending on the results of the archaeology, maybe one or 
more of the following might make the problem go away:

  * just asking Seller nicely might prompt Seller to round up the needed
    signature from BJ to get this single application past the refusal; or
  * just asking Seller nicely might prompt Seller to round up the
    signature from BJ on a document that is worded not only to get this
    single application past the refusal but that also addresses any and
    all future applications; or
  * simply filing with the Trademark Office the purchase-and-sale
    agreement including the "cleanup" section (in lieu of the signature
    from BJ) along with appropriate explanation might conceivably prompt
    the Examiner to withdraw the refusal; or
  * filing with the Trademark Office the purchase-and-sale agreement,
    along with proof that you asked the Seller nicely and that the
    Seller has not (to date) provided the needed cleanup document.

Path number 4 might work even if the Seller never actually rounds up the 
needed signature.  Two documents land on the desk of the Examiner -- a 
first document that says (more or less) that if you ask the Seller 
nicely, they have to do the cleanup.  A second document that says you 
asked the Seller nicely and so on.

And then the Examiner concludes that even if you
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