When google thinks local, they think ShopSavvy!

http://oregonintellectualproperty.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/trademark.jpgIf you are like me you use Google Alerts to alert yourself when someone mentions your brand. Each day I get LOTS of alerts for the term ShopSavvy – today was no different.  One alert pointed me to a post on Google’s Retail Advertising Blog along with this sentence, “we at Google recognize the need to build better products to connect retailers with shop-savvy, local customers.

I showed the post to our team and one of our developers was sort of pissed that Google was using our trademark when talking about local/mobile shopping. (Exactly one year ago we were granted a trademark for the term ‘ShopSavvy®’, registration number 77571663). It took me about a second to realize that even people at Google either consciously or subconsciously think about ShopSavvy when they think about mobile-powered local shopping. At the end of the day that is what ShopSavvy is all about. Who sells the products I want to buy, who has them in stock and for how much – oh and how do I get there. So I am super pumped ShopSavvy has found its way into the ether in Google’s retail team.

I don’t think Julia Tang had any ill intent when she used our trademark in her post, but we have seen a number of instances where someone will write a blog post suggesting ‘consumers can shopsavvy with [insert competitor name]‘ or use shopsavvy in their keywords in the iTunes store. We appreciate the former, but not the latter use.


5 Responses

  1. EnTerr says:

    Dude, you have a “standard character mark” registration over “ShopSavvy”, not over “shop savvy” or “shop-savvy consumers”.

    What are you trying to say, that your brand is used in genericide as in “i googled it on bing?”. This will be the case if s/o said “I shop-savvied it with RedLaser”… as if someone ever will!

    You want people not to use “shop-savvy” or “net-savvy” or “proton savvy”? Well duh, apply for ™ for them. What you got is registration for ShopSavvy as one word, non-separated.

  2. EnTerr says:

    Well I suppose you will have more standing chasing after that blog for “genericide”, for it seems to have used the name of your app (with a space though, hmmm) as a verb.

    Yes, indeed re ™ vs (r) – i “misspoke”

  3. MAY says:

    it’s may, where is the WinMo app. I’ll keep asking because I’m pretty sure you guys aren’t ever going to release it.

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