Uber试图阻止佛罗里达沙龙APP的商标

Uber试图阻止佛罗里达沙龙APP的商标

A single mother from Florida is gearing up for battle with ride-hailing behemoth Uber over an app she is building.

一位来自佛罗里达州的单身母亲正准备与叫车巨头优步(Uber)就她正在开发的一款应用展开竞争。

Carolina Vengoechea, 45, tells The Post that Uber has demanded she give up the name of her beauty salon app, called “BeauBer.” But she has refused, arguing that the name is the combination of her two job titles, beautician and barber — and has nothing to do with the San Francisco-based company.

45岁的卡罗莱娜·文戈切亚(Carolina Vengoechea)告诉《华盛顿邮报》，优步要求她放弃自己的美容院应用程序“BeauBer”的名字。但她拒绝了，称这个名字是她的两个工作头衔——美容师和理发师——的组合，与这家总部位于旧金山的公司无关。

Vengoechea says she has already turned down multiple settlement offers from the $60 billion Uber, which is hell-bent on destroying trademarks that include its name. Unless the company backs down, she said, she will be forced to face them in court next year.

Vengoechea说，她已经拒绝了多次Uber600亿美元的和解要约，Uber决心摧毁包括其名称在内的商标。她说，除非公司让步，否则明年她将被迫面对他们。

Larry Marano

“I’ve already spent money on BeauBer,” Vengoechea said of her app. “I feel like settling is just giving up. I know I’m not doing anything wrong. Why do I have to settle just because they have more money than me?”

“我已经把钱花在了博伯身上，”Vengoechea在谈到她的应用程序时说。“我觉得安定就是放弃。我知道我没有做错什么。为什么他们比我有更多的钱，我就得将就?“

Vengoechea says she started building the BeauBer app in 2018 to help patrons of her small beauty salon book appointments. But when she hired a lawyer to have the name trademarked, she found herself in the crosshairs of Uber’s high-powered legal team, which filed a notice of opposition with the US Patent and Trademark Office accusing her of attempting to capitalize on the Uber brand.

Vengoechea说，她在2018年开始构建Beauber应用程序，以帮助她的小美容院的顾客预约。但当她聘请一名律师为这个名字注册商标时，她发现自己成了优步强大法律团队的目标。该团队向美国专利商标局(US Patent and Trademark Office)提交了一份反对通知，指控她试图利用优步这个品牌。

Vengoechea has designed the BeauBer logo with a colorful 1970s disco look — nothing like Uber’s sleek black and white logo. And she is quick to point out that the “u” in the name comes from “beauty,” not “uber.” So it is silent and therefore doesn’t sound like Uber.

Vengoechea设计了BeauBer的标志，带有20世纪70年代迪斯科的色彩，完全不像Uber的黑白标志。她很快指出，这个名字中的“u”来自“beauty”，而不是“uber”。所以它是无声的，所以听起来不像优步。

Uber is no stranger to attacking trademarks that include its name. It has also gone after individuals who have attempted to trademark names like “Uber Trash,” “UberAire,” “Uber Cuts” and “Uber Health,” filing more than a dozen trademark oppositions since it went after Vengoechea last October.

Uber对攻击包括其名字在内的商标并不陌生。自去年10月对Vengoechea发起商标攻击以来，优步还对试图给“Uber Trash”、“UberAire”、“Uber Cuts”和“Uber Health”等名字注册商标的个人发起了攻击。

It’s a strategy that lawyers say is simply part of good corporate hygiene.

律师们表示，这种策略只是良好企业名誉习惯的一部分。

“The more they protect their mark, the more its value grows,” noted Michael Goldberg, a partner at law firm Pryor Cashman. “She’s a victim of Uber’s success, really.”

普赖尔·卡什曼律师事务所合伙人迈克尔·戈德伯格指出：“他们越是保护自己的商标，其价值就越大。”“她真的是优步成功的受害者。”

But they also agree that Vengoechea, who works alone at her salon in Coral Gables, Fla., could actually have a shot in court.

但他们也同意，在佛罗里达州珊瑚山墙(Coral Gables)的沙龙里独自工作的Vengoechea，实际上可以到法庭上试一试。

“Here, it appears that Uber has gone outside their normal zone of necessary protection and have opposed a mark which should not reasonably be opposed,” Steven Gursky, a partner at law firm Oshlan, said. “Perhaps being ‘uber’ wealthy allows them to be overly aggressive.”

奥什兰律师事务所合伙人史蒂芬·古尔斯基说：“优步似乎已经超出了正常的保护范围，并反对了一个不应该被合理反对的标志。”“也许成为超级富豪会让他们变得过于咄咄逼人。”

Vengoechea told The Post that Uber’s legal maneuvers have prevented her from being able to invest in the development of her app since the money she had set aside for the project has since been funneled instead into legal fees.

Vengoechea告诉《华盛顿邮报》，Uber的法律手段阻止了她投资开发自己的应用程序，因为她为该项目预留的资金后来被用于支付法律费用。

But now that she’s in the fight, she also doesn’t want to let Uber win.

但现在她也在战斗中，她也不想让优步赢。

“I’m just a woman who’s trying to do her business and trying to do well and make it for my daughter,” she said. “When somebody has more money than you, they kill your dreams.”

她说：“我只是一个想做生意，想把事情做好，为我女儿争取利益的女人。”“当有人比你有钱时，他们会扼杀你的梦想。”

Uber declined to comment for this story.

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