• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Tradio Trademark?

Hi,

Does anyone remember a few years back when someone tried to trademark Tradio?
Can anyone share information on that, I believe several posts said they tried
to collect a monthly fee for anyone using "Tradio"

Thank you!

EDIT: apologies if this is in the wrong spot, mods can feel free to move this. Thanks again.
 
Last edited:
There is no current federal servicemark on Tradio except for in use for "Antennas; antenna filters; filters for radio interference suppression; dielectric resonator filters".

State-level filings are completely different.
 
Tradio is the name of WIOO's (Carlisle, PA) swap shop show.
 
Lots of stations have a "tradio" show. But it's like "Star", it's market by market. No one owns the trademark for the entire country.
 
Tradio is the name of WIOO's (Carlisle, PA) swap shop show.
Yeah, there are a bunch of them. Tradio, Trading Post, Swap Shop, etc. are hosted on a bunch of mostly full-service AM stations where listeners call in to buy or sell things. As @Daryl Lynn L.A. may recall, a few of Howard Stern's lackeys had a semi-regular bit where they'd call in and prank Tradio / Swap Shop shows. Most were on small-town stations where the hosts probably hadn't heard of Stern, much less imagined it might be his staff pranking them. Made for some pretty funny radio bits, but one can't help but feel a bit empathetic toward the gullible radio hosts who were the brunt. There are a bunch of them on YouTube if interested.
 
My opinion- I value and respect intellectual property. If a property was previously registered, you can't blame someone for wanting to assert their position

It would be unfortunate if after the fact of common usage, copyright trolls turned their attention to the Tradio word.
In the overall scheme of things, what is the problem?

I recall Dick Clark's careful and consistent pronunciation of the show name "Rock, Roll and Remember". Good chance this was indicative of a previously existing intellectual property registration by someone else.

Intellectual property is a big subject and legal practice area. Many attorneys and legal firms specialize in it. You can read about the history of McDonald's. More recently Toys "R" Us caused legal action based on use of "R".

Radio broadcasters have faced legal action because their websites contained images that were copyrighted. Sometimes trolls create content on the Internet for the sole purpose of profit via legal action against someone who publishes the content. This can be economically devastating to radio stations that are small businesses. This had lead to many stations directing staff to only publish images taken by their cameras or licensed from a stock image company. Staff demographic that produces social media and web content lives in the moment, and is frequently impulsive. The station cracks down, and then a desirable staff demographic takes this to mean they are not wanted, and radio is crushing creativity. Thus, the correct legal and business decision results in a situation that can harm the business in another way.

This is why many radio websites and social media content has become generic or slowed down. It is not because the radio company is evil. It is because they have to contend with the risk of it. This is getting played out on the grand scale with Internet law regarding publishing, ownership of content, etc. i.e. should FedEx be liable for what is in the package?

No one said this is going to be easy. But you knew this already :)
 
Last edited:
btw- by the evil word, I meant that sometimes the public thinks a company is behaving badly, when in fact it is not.
If you look at this from the viewpoint of an owner, do you want to be one photo or show name away from a major expense and legal process?
 
Last edited:
The first time I heard "Tradio" as a swap shop program name was more than 50 years ago, on a Boston talk station, I think the (5KW) regional on 590 called WEEI. Many years later the owner acquired 50 KW 850 then WHDH, put the call WEEI on it, and sold the regional.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom