Travel Spike acts to protect intellectual property

Travel Spike, LLC, a travel marketing and technology company and the owner of the Travel Ad Network® service, sent a cease and desist letter to direct competitor Travel Ad Network.

The move came after the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a Trademark Registration covering Travel Spike’s Travel Ad trademark.
 

Travel Ad Network is an advertising network for the travel, tourism and hospitality industry.

“The application for the trademark was filed to protect the company's intellectual property and help differentiate Travel Ad Network® from competitors improperly using Travel Spike's mark,” according to PRNewswire.

TAN, a company reported to have raised US$31 million from venture capitalists, uses the mark as the name of its company, service and website address.

Travel Spike is making this public announcement based on the response received to a formal cease and desist letter delivered to Brian Silver, TAN's CEO, and TAN's board of directors, said PRNewsire.

"The USPTO's decision to award Travel Spike with the mark, Travel Ad Network®, is a major corporate accomplishment for our company," said Howard Koval, Travel Spike's Executive Vice President and Chief Strategist. He added:

"In addition to protecting our intellectual property, we hope that this will be the initial step toward helping misinformed advertisers and publishers distinguish between us and others using our trademark."

He said Travel Spike has spent considerable resources counseling clients confused about the relationship between Travel Spike's Travel Ad Network® service and TAN's use of the same name. He said TAN tried to register TRAVEL AD NETWORK as its mark, but the USPTO awarded it to Travel Spike, a decision TAN did not challenge.

This now confirms that Travel Spike's continuous use of Travel Ad Network® constitutes legal ownership of the mark, he said.

"This process has taken over 2 years and we are pleased the USPTO has made it clear that we own the Travel Ad Network® mark," said Ryan Bifulco, Travel Spike's CEO and founder. "We pursued this because our business and brand have been negatively impacted by confusing marketing practices used by our competitors.”

Travel Spike will continue to actively expand its Travel Ad Network® service by adding new sites, partners and capabilities to better service the needs of its travel-centric client base, according to the company.

Founded in 2001, Travel Spike, LLC is a travel marketing and technology solutions company.

In 2002, Travel Spike created the Travel Ad Network® service, a vertical online marketing platform exclusively focused on travel, tourism and hospitality. Travel Ad Network® offers travel advertisers and agencies a suite of digital services, including display ads, travel deal text links, targeted emails, social media marketing, lead generation and cross platform integrated content-driven sponsorships.

By David Wilkening