Big companies should enforce their trademark rights warily and consider how an infringement lawsuit could hurt the company’s reputation, said a Yahoo! Inc. trademark lawyer at the International Trademark Association annual meeting in Boston. Before filing a trademark case over a parody, companies should think about how an alleged infringer might use the Internet to tell his or her side of the story, said J. Scott Evans, the senior legal director for global brands and trademarks at Yahoo!, at a Tuesday breakfast seminar.
“We need to use litigation as a last resort,” Mr. Evans said. “You’ve not only made your company look bad, you’ve given a platform to the guy you’re trying to shut down.” Every person with a computer or a personal digital assistant “has the ability to be a reporter or their own brand and tell their own story the way they never have before,” Mr. Evans said.
