The American Question

I wanted to address a question I’ve been asked several times in the last few days.

Question: You mentioned in one of your articles that you registered the Jabot trademark in the USA in 1990.  This week one of the soap stars launched Jabot facial creams on the Home Shopping Network.  Do you have any rights in the USA?

Answer: I did indeed register the Jabot trademark in the United States in 1990.  However, we didn’t have good retail connections in the States and that’s why I teamed up with the three American businessmen whom I mentioned earlier.  One of them had excellent retail connections. Unfortunately their negotiations with Sony went nowhere.

We held the trademark in the States for ten years and it expired.  Trademarks are registered to be used and our usage in the USA was very limited.  Therefore our chances of renewing the Jabot trademark in the States were slim.

My three American associates, Hal, Rick, and Jack, were quite capable of making Jabot a success in the States so I was suspicious of Sony’s reluctance towards our proposal.  I believed that Sony was interested in what we had to say but wanted to cut us out of the picture.  So I continued to keep an eye on Sony and guess what?  The US trademark is now owned by CPT Holdings Inc.  Sony Pictures Television, formerly Columbia Pictures Television, is a division of CPT Holdings.