One of the most famous examples of a trademark was Robert Crumb's extremely popular drawing "Keep On Truckin'". This was reproduced on T shirts, bumper stickers, psychedelic posters, and more during the "hippie" period. Nobody challenged Crumb as the creator of the image, but when he objected to some of the ways that it was used and tried to stop them by charging trademark violation, the courts ruled that it was too late. He had let so many people use it for so long without any objection that it had fallen into the public domain, and it was too late to claim ownership of the image.
One of the most famous examples of a trademark was Robert Crumb's extremely popular drawing "Keep On Truckin'". This was reproduced on T shirts, bumper stickers, psychedelic posters, and more during the "hippie" period. Nobody challenged Crumb as the creator of the image, but when he objected to some of the ways that it was used and tried to stop them by charging trademark violation, the courts ruled that it was too late. He had let so many people use it for so long without any objection that it had fallen into the public domain, and it was too late to claim ownership of the image.
Fred Patten