I'm currently talking with someone else about a bunch of trademark issues in a field now rampant with them--craft beer. I've said that, quite soon, we're going to run out of beer names to trademark, and some of the breweries are even producing beer names joking about the scarcity of available names.
In talking with one trademark owner that had to file against a brewpub that used the same name, he said "Look, I didn't want to send a C&D; I LIKE the guys. But I had people asking me why I was starting a brewpub on the other side of town, and, honestly, trademark law kind of forces you to be an [not-very-nice guy] to protect what's really yours. If I don't, and all of a sudden Disney wants to make a movie on this theme, I can't sue for my share if I did nothing against [that brewery]."

And speaking of breweries: Maybe I found a potential target here?

http://www.roanokerailhouse.com/

Look at the logos..............

Steve Davidson, the brewery's founder, had better be sweating bullets over the VMT application. All it takes is one nattering neo-Prohibitionist in the VMT board of directors, and any hope of a nice agreement between the brewery and the Museum (say, a certain percentage of sales, up to $1,000 or whatever a year) is beyond reach.

Back in the late 1980s, a winery near Altoona started cranking out "1361" and "Horseshoe Curve" wines, with a dollar or some other such fee from each bottle of the former going to the Railroaders Memorial Museum. In that case, the Museum was even (somehow) allowed to market the wines themselves.

This whole discussion is starting to make me thirsty

Found this on the website also:

The Virginia Museum of Transportation has announced its initial filing with the US Patent & Trademark Office to register the N&W Class J 611. What does this mean? Can I still take pictures?

611’s fans are welcome to take all the pictures they want for personal use, but anyone wanting to sell photographs, t-shirts, or other souvenirs, or use 611’s image in any way for profit must obtain a license agreement from the Museum. This requirement guarantees that products are authorized and that proceeds benefit the Museum and in particular, 611.

I would rather see Mr. Davidson not seek a license and prepare a response to an expected C&D letter that seeks to deprive him of his own trademark with images he's used for years and presumably owns the rights to. I hope he knows what is going on and when the time comes jump in during the comment period if there is such a thing.

The beer logo above doesn't depict #611 specifically, so I would hope they have nothing to worry about.

It's clearly an N&W K2 class 4-8-2!

Both beer logos that feature what could be a J or K2 both have twin sealed beam headlights. It's 611, the only J so equipped.

Time for some more coffee!

I was being sarcastic. All's well

Yup I looked really closely and you are right it is a K class

It will be interesting to see if they can enforce that. I know that they can on private property, Disney is famous for cracking down on people selling photos etc taken while on Disney property.

However, as any paparazzi hating movie star will tell you, if the photo is taken from a public area, and without any "reasonable expectation of privacy" (i.e. Not looking into their windows with an 800 mm lens) then it's fair game to sell to the National Midnight Star Enquirer.

This has happened before, with the "Lone Tree" at Pebble Beach, and even legal experts couldn't agree on whether or not it was legal.

http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/new ... 0a861.html

Maybe. Then again, NS owns the trademarks and rights to all N&W logos, slogans and marks so it's entirely possible that the USPTO could deny the application. It'll be up to the trademark attorneys to split those legal hairs. We can't count the chickens until they hatch.