The ORIGINAL Bighorn found!

ChopperBill

Well-known member
While camping with some friends I finally noticed what brand their 30, or so, year old class C was. Funny they have had this thing over a year and I haven't caught this before! OK now, who was the manufacture of this ORIGINAL Bighorn and has any of their right been violated? :confused: I know that our Snowriver truck camper is called a Snowbird in Canada but couldn't be named that because NuWa had the name in the USA (they have discontinued that model) Just kind of fun to debate.
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Chulinw

Guest
ChopperBill you came up with a good one this time. You will get some good answers soon I am sure. It will be interesting reading as post come about.
 

iefpro01

Well-known member
Legally it would depend on if they Copyrighted and maintained the copyright of the name. If they did not originally copyright the name, and are no longer in business or have not used the name in a long time then they have no continued rights to the name.

The term "Big Horn" would probably be hard to copyright - since it is the name of an animal, thus open to public domain. I am not a lawyer - but had a lot of this type stuff in my MBA classes - and it was something I have run into now and then. Does this make sense?
 

ChopperBill

Well-known member
I am guessing the original Bighorn RV has long bit the dust. Probably no one left to give a darn. But you never know. Could be someone waiting in the wings waiting for Heartland to build up the coffers then they are going after them. Pretty sure Heartland would check into the name before they slapped it on their fifth wheel.

on edit: Ah! just noticed the mystery Big Horn is two words. Not the same as Bighorn??
 

iefpro01

Well-known member
Ok - further legal info. I dug out my Business Law book. LOL - yes this one caught my attention. After research the name Big Horn is considered public domain and can not be copyrighted or patented. Now as for the last legal venue would be Trademarks. First trademarks must be renewed every 10 years, there are two types a state only or Federal. Both have 10 year limits in most cases. Now the next issue is it currently being used commercially by the original owner of the trademark - if not then even if they do have a current trademark registered, it is considered diluted under the Federal Dilution Act. Also I am not sure that you can trademark the word Big Horn - because of it is the name of a place and an animal) Example Big Horn Mountains as a place.
Now on to further research, I checked the federal trademark site for the word "big horn" or "bighorn" - and in fact the are a lot of registered trade marks using the word big horn - but they all have some style with it. That means that you have to include the actual drawing or symbol as well in this case - because the simple word big horn can not be trademarked. BTW I did not see any trademarks for rvs using the word. I did find for an example that DAIMLERCHRYSLER CORPORATION owned one for a pick-up, as well as , other companies for whisky, tires, ranches, muzzle loaded rifles, Golf apparel, hunting horns, casino services, binoculars, saddles, wheat flour, and Bentonite Clay. There were 58 records - many of them dead.
So it looks like even Heartland has not trademarked (at the federal level) the word and logo. Scott if you are reading this - for my wonderful service I will trade one upgrade - LOL...
 
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Chulinw

Guest
iefpro01, I think you have got all of us on this one. Just love to read all the replies. I think even Scott will enjoy this one. Good luck on the upgrade. LOL....
 
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