George Lucas foundation hits out in TM claim
A not-for-profit foundation set up by filmmaker George Lucas, the creator of the “Star Wars” franchise, has hit out at Delaware-based Educopia.
Filed on Thursday, April 27, at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, the claim alleged that Educopia had infringed the mark ‘Edutopia’, which is owned by The George Lucas Educational Foundation.
Educopia is a provider performance-based, licensure exams for teachers.
The foundation is helping to transform the “learning process by helping educators to implement effective classroom strategies” through its Edutopia programme, according to the lawsuit.
“Plaintiff chose the Edutopia name and mark because it captures the mission of creating a world where students and parents, teachers and administrators, policy makers and the people they serve are all empowered with a shared vision to change education for the better,” said the claim.
In 1993, the foundation began offering education resources via a printed newsletter called “Edutopia”.
It subsequently registered the www.edutopia.org domain name and began to offer its educational content and services via its website in September 2002.
According to the claim, the foundation receives over 3.9 million visits per month on its website and reaches more than 10 million users across social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
The foundation owns US registration number 2,957,264 for the ‘Edutopia’ mark for “Educational services, namely, providing online website concerning topics related to education” in international class 41.
It also owns the mark for international classes 9, 42 and 45.
The foundation alleged that Educopia filed an application to register ‘Educopia’ in June 2015 at the US Patent and Trademark Office in class 42.
“Mark Atkinson, founder and president of defendant, was personally aware of plaintiff’s ‘Edutopia’ goods and services since at least as early as 2005. Atkinson signed up for plaintiff’s ‘Edutopia’ electronic newsletter in 2005, and has been sent plaintiff’s electronic newsletter since that time,” said the suit.
Lucas’s foundation is seeking injunctive relief, destruction of infringing material, refusal of registration of the ‘Educopia’ mark, damages, and a jury trial.
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