and Blue Cross and Blue Shield have been aggressive in challenging uses of symbols and concepts they have spent substantial money developing, according to lawyers and brand experts. Over the years, businesses including Apple Inc., McDonald's Corp. Travelers is hardly the only major company to cast a wide net to protect its trademark. Travelers called it "a mutually acceptable and amicable settlement." A Farmers spokesman said its matter was "amicably resolved" in recent days Travelers declined to comment. Legal & General, which is continuing to use the umbrella, declined to comment. The same month, Travelers filed a trademark-infringement suit against Farmers Group, which has used umbrellas for such things as promoting a product known industrywide as "umbrella liability" insurance.
Travelers in March reached a confidential settlement with Legal & General Group PLC over allegations the British insurer's multicolored umbrella infringed on its trademark.
"If you don't protect your trademark, if you let everybody use your symbol because it is a common household item, some day you will find someone who will say to the court: ‘But, look, you have tolerated all these other uses,' " says Siegrun Kane, author of "Kane on Trademark Law: A Practitioner's Guide." Trademark experts say there is legal justification for pursuing even some harmless-sounding cases. "We have one of the best and most recognizable brands in the world and take seriously our responsibility to protect its value," a spokesman says. Travelers declined to comment on individual instances, but says it is acting within well-established trademark law. "Mary Poppins might want to consider lawyering up," quips Randy Maniloff, an insurance-industry attorney with White & Williams LLP. It also has gone to federal court to protest rival insurers' umbrella use.
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Among its targets have been a California program to improve children's health, an antivirus software firm, a Polish nutritional-supplement producer and even the umbrella-making Totes Isotoner Corp. Since 2007, Travelers has challenged at least 30 trademark applications across a range of industries, according to U.S. The property-casualty insurer has gone to great lengths to stop other companies from hoisting umbrellas as logos. Denison recalls thinking.įor Travelers, an umbrella is rarely just an umbrella. "Why is some big corporation picking on some little person in Alaska who doesn't compete with them?" Mr.
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