How do we stop the playground bullies?
(IANAL) Registration is not required for Trademark protection. But even if “The Playground” is protectable mark, you’d still have to have been the first one to do it (in the brick-and-mortar world, location also matters… not nearly as much the case on the internet) and I would guess that you’re probably not. And that’s ignoring all of the comments above which suggest, and rightly so, that “The Playground” is not a particularly ingenious and creative name for a parenting forum and I personally doubt (this is not legal advice) that you’d ever be able to get Trademark protection for it. If your community is better than the other Playground, you’ll win. If not, you don’t deserve to win. Trying to use Trademark law as a sword to eliminate legitimate competition is not really what it was intended for.
