[Bonny]

Originally Posted by Phanatic Luvr

Now here's a question ... How can all these entities, such as Life in The Villages, and even Talk of The Villages, and all other companies with "The Villages" in their names, not be made to change their names as Tom from TheVillagesAV was forced to.
I can't really understand the reasoning that The Villages is a trademark, owned by The Villages but yet we are a town in Florida with 3 separate zip codes under The Villages, FL.
I can grasp that The Villages does not want anyone to come in, and more or less represent them, by using the name The Villages, but .... how legal is it to make entities go through changing the names, LLC's, websites, stationary, etc...
Just a question that maybe the Admin can answer.
What can I tell you, I'm just the curious kind.

I would think it would have to do with being a business. If the business is bad, I certainly wouldn't want my name associated with it or have anyone think I was involved with it.
Maybe things like Life in Villages, etc, are more community oriented and considered a blog or a newsletter with good things about the Villages.
Just a guess.

[asianthree]

Originally Posted by Phanatic Luvr

Now here's a question ... How can all these entities, such as Life in The Villages, and even Talk of The Villages, and all other companies with "The Villages" in their names, not be made to change their names as Tom from TheVillagesAV was forced to.
I can't really understand the reasoning that The Villages is a trademark, owned by The Villages but yet we are a town in Florida with 3 separate zip codes under The Villages, FL.
I can grasp that The Villages does not want anyone to come in, and more or less represent them, by using the name The Villages, but .... how legal is it to make entities go through changing the names, LLC's, websites, stationary, etc...
Just a question that maybe the Admin can answer.
What can I tell you, I'm just the curious kind.

I agree there are rental companies out there using the villages names interesting to see what happens to their names. Just wondering if TV is just taking some time to contact other companies This may just be round number one with Tom's company.

[dewilson58]

Thanks for the discovery.

[TOTV Team]

A quick Google Search will show over 24 websites in the first 10 pages. Their position is that The Villages is a trademark. If they have sent letters to the 24+ websites in Florida using the name The Villages in their domain we would not know. If it is legal, until someone wants to invest in challenging their position I don't know if we will have a clear answer to that.

[Skip]

Originally Posted by Admin

A quick Google Search will show over 24 websites in the first 10 pages. Their position is that The Villages is a trademark. If they have sent letters to the 24+ websites in Florida using the name The Villages in their domain we would not know. If it is legal, until someone wants to invest in challenging their position I don't know if we will have a clear answer to that.

Trademarks pertain to a specific product or service. In this case a "retirement community" or "home sales" or "transportation service". But since they allowed the same words to be used as a place name (thus the Post Office accepts The Villages, FL.) you can generally use the 2-word phrase in many other ways. If you use the stylized words on your product or service, then you are mis-leading the public into thinking you are part of The Villages of Lake-Sumter, Inc. or The Holding Company of The Villages, Inc. (the owner of the trademark). I believe it is a registered trademark ®.

The Community Development Districts were given written permission to use the trademarks and service marks for 10 years at a time (renewable.)

There was a business that used the image of a "The Villages" road sign in their advertisements. (That stylized logo belongs only to the developer.) That misleading use would and should be stopped.

So you can't make an automobile and call it Ford, but you can start a dairy and call it Ford Dairy if no one else has that name registered for dairies.

So Talk of The Villages, refers to a place in Florida, not a product.

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[Skip]

The website is owned by Bryan Orr of Kalos Services, Inc. in Clermont, FL.
That's him in the video.

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