Man who trademarked name of his own county hands it over to council

An Ontario man who managed to trademark the name of the county he lives in says he has decided to relinquish the trademark to the local government.

Michael Stinson caused a stir among Haliburton County officials when they learned last week that he had trademarked the word Haliburton, despite federal rules that say names and words representing a geographic location are not allowed to be trademarked.

Stinson — who sells T-shirts and other merchandise with the name Haliburton at his shop, The Haliburton Store — said he trademarked the name to prevent anyone from tarnishing the name of his county.

He insisted that he never intended to deceive or harm anyone and always had the county’s best interests at heart.

“I always wanted to put Haliburton on the map with the co-operation of the county, I guess I have done it now,” Stinson said in a statement Friday.

Event Centre funding

City may hire lobbyist for event centre money

14h ago

International honours

Raiders' Kubiesa to represent Czechia at IIHF U18 Men's World Championship

17h ago

Learn the signs

How often should you change your brakes?

21h ago

“I can assign the Haliburton trademark to the county which will allow for better marketing opportunities than I ever imagined. It was fortunate for me to get the trademark versus another individual who does not have the best interest of Haliburton in mind.”

Trademarking is a process that gives a person exclusive use of a brand name, and protects the brand from misuse by others.

As the owner of the trademark, Stinson is allowed to collect royalties from anyone selling merchandise with the name Haliburton on it.

The situation had Haliburton County officials prepared to go to court after they said the federal office for trademarks advised them that legal action was the only way to overturn Stinson’s trademark.

On Friday, however, both Stinson and Haliburton County’s warden, Brent Devolin, said they had reached an agreement to have Stinson give up the trademark, with no strings attached.

“He irrevocably, without condition, will either transfer rights to the county of Haliburton, or have them expunged form the (trademark) directory, whichever is our preference,” said Devolin. 

County officials will decide later this month whether or not they will keep the trademark, Devolin said, noting that Stinson’s co-operation on the matter will save time and money for the local government.

“I have to thank Mr. Stinson for that, he could have told us to go pound salt,” said Devolin.

The county warden said, however, that he wants to speak to the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development about what happened and ways in which similar situations can be handled without legal action.  

“The (Trademarks) act has no provision when there is clearly an error made,” said Stinson. “There needs to be a mechanism in it that when there is something clearly contrary to the act, that there’s a mechanism for it to be fixed.”

The ministry did not respond to questions about how Stinson was able to get his trademark.

Stephanie Chong, a trademark lawyer with Hoffer Adler LLP, said that transferring a trademark generally requires one party to draft an assignment document, which would then be agreed to by the party receiving the trademark. She noted, however, that the process could differ from case to case.

Salmaan Farooqui, The Canadian Press