Protecting your name against clones

I was just handed a piece of Dove chocolate. Inside the wrapper: inspirational advice branded as a "Promises (R) Message."

The Dove "Promise Message" campaign may seem innocuous enough, but consider the trademarked "Promises" in conjunction with positive advice. "Promises" is also the name of a prominent rehab center--so prominent, in fact, that my first impression in seeing the name was that it was in a joint marketing program with Dove Chocolate. Note the following snippet from the Promises website:

Promises Treatment Centers stay on-the-cutting-edge of drug rehab, alcoholism and addiction treatment, and can make many boasts and claims, including a widely recognized name . . .

Should PTC have considered the possibility that it would market, say, inspirational cards or signs and trademarked "Promises" appropriately? Perhaps they did and just haven't policed it--I haven't had time to check.

Which reminded me of something that caught my eye earlier this week. In New York's Gramercy Park there's a legendary old actors' club called The Players. Incorporated by Mark Twain, Edwin Booth and William Tecumseh Sherman, it's just around the corner from where Jimmy Cagney used to live, and IIRC was address-checked in his Strawberry Blonde as the place where Cagney's working-class character Biff Grimes first encountered the exotic foreign dish known as "spaghetti." The club conducts business with similarly elite clubs throughout the U.S., has a website and at least for a while sold branded merch.

And by the way, it's also commonly referred to as The Players Club.

A couple weeks ago, news started circulating of Lenny Dykstra's new sports entrepreneurship magazine, The Players Club. Its NYC office on Park Avenue is just a few blocks north.

I frequently get asked whether getting a trademark--let alone trademark in several categories, as Dykstra's venture did--is worth the price. I tend to think it is, especially if you're going to have an internet presence or do business of any kind outside your immediate geographic community.