Ripping Off Trademark Names

[bois323]

A friend of mine just returned from a 2 month trip where he visited countries in Europe, Africa and the middle east.

Being a former sign shop owner he checked out some sign shops and what he found was very interesting.

Shop names like: Fastsign (no s at the end), Signs Pro (Extra s at signs), Signs World (extra s) and my favorite rip off Sign-O-Rama (signarama) He said the Sign-O-Rama logo was almost identical

It this legal? Aren't these trademarked all over the world or only in the U.S.? And does simply changing a letter in the name really make it legal? Or ethical?

I just think you would want your own identity when starting a business.

Any thoughts...

 

[S'N'S]

We have the similar here, I can register a sign shop business name in my state regardless of who has that name in any other state in this country as long as its not trademarked, how many sign shops are going to trademark their name.
As for trademarks, only recognized in half the counties in the world (83)
Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks. Under this Agreement, registration of trademarks may be obtained in any or all participating countries from a single application filed in the home country of the applicant.
List of participating countrys http://www.bohanmathers.com/madridcountries.html
This pretty much tells you everything http://www.bohanmathers.com/tmworld.html

 

[onlinestar]

http://www.wamda.com/2012/05/is-rocket-internet-s-entrance-into-the-middle-east-a-bad-thing

 

[bois323]

We have the similar here, I can register a sign shop business name in my state regardless of who has that name in any other state in this country as long as its not trademarked, how many sign shops are going to trademark their name.
As for trademarks, only recognized in half the counties in the world (83)
Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks. Under this Agreement, registration of trademarks may be obtained in any or all participating countries from a single application filed in the home country of the applicant.
List of participating countrys http://www.bohanmathers.com/madridcountries.html
This pretty much tells you everything http://www.bohanmathers.com/tmworld.html

Some big countries missing from that list including Canada (very surprised that it is not on there) and Bahamas.