Read on Twitter
Not like anyone will care but I decided to do some digging into the #traptea fiasco between the business in question and Ivy's Tea Co.
Short answer is this
The trade name "Trap Tea" does not belong to Ivy's Tea Co. #traptea does.
Long answer below:
Short answer is this
The trade name "Trap Tea" does not belong to Ivy's Tea Co. #traptea does.
Long answer below:
Looking at Colorado's Business Trademark Site ( http://sos.co.us ), Justia ( http://trademark.justia.com ), and USPTO ( http://tsdr.uspto.gov ),
I found two things. On Colorado's site, Trap Tea LLC was registered on 10/28/2019 and the trade name "Trap Tea" August of this year.
I found two things. On Colorado's site, Trap Tea LLC was registered on 10/28/2019 and the trade name "Trap Tea" August of this year.
Justia's site did not show Trap Tea, but " #TRAPTEA" under Ivy's Tea Co. Filed May 11, 2020. But one thing stuck out - THREE trademarks existed. One for classes on making tea, one for preparation of tea, and an online store. All still under the same date, company and name.
And will be published September 15, 2020. Did ITC steal? No, actually. #TRAPTEA is Ivy's Tea Co. property while Trap Tea is Trap Tea LLC's property. These technicalities exist for a reason.
Also on USPTO, which I used as a backup source, it shows the same information. Filed May 11 2020 and currently in review. All three.
I also did a timeline search looking for mention of TrapTea by Ivy's Tea Co. And it is mentioned alot within the hashtag #TrapTea
I also did a timeline search looking for mention of TrapTea by Ivy's Tea Co. And it is mentioned alot within the hashtag #TrapTea
It was mainly being used to promote sales on the site, the blog and whatever else in between. Like how people would use hashtags on this site to organize their art or videos or something. At that point it really just existed as a hashtag on Twitter. No trademark yet.
So to say it was stolen is a bit of a stretch since the Twitter account was fairly under the radar for a few years until now. So with that I say this:
It being stolen is highly unlikely but not impossible. The boba shop could have been sneaking around and nabbed it. Or they could have just brainstormed ideas for a name that fit that urban youth culture setting they wanted. And Trap Tea matched it. This is very possible.
The only difference between the names is that there is a space and no hashtag. That is enough of a difference to trademark these separate things. This just didn't need to happen. But both businesses got more business so yea.
But yea that's enough rambling. I wanted to get this outta my brain since this whole sitch looked entirely messy.
