An Atlanta small-business owner is claiming victory in his trademark battle with Wal-Mart.
The Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant withdrew its petition to cancel a trademark registered by entrepreneur O.B. Nizam for his company, Embodi International.
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office dismissed the case with prejudice in June, meaning that it can’t be refiled.
Nizam said he can now turn his attention to his business of selling hair care and beauty products online and through salons in Atlanta and several other U.S. markets.
“We’ll move forward,” Nizam said. “I guess I got a little burst of energy from this.”
Nizam’s Atlanta attorney, Jerry Caldwell, said he asked Wal-Mart to back up its claim that it had common law rights to the names “Embody” and “Mbody.”
Wal-Mart had said it had rights to the Embody name dating to at least 2004 and to the Mbody name as early as 2007.
Nizam registered the Embodi name in 2008, the year he first used it in business. Wal-Mart tried to trademark the Embody name last year, but the trademark office refused that request, citing likely confusion with the Embodi name.
Caldwell said Nizam “did everything by the book” in registering the trademark. Then, “out of nowhere,” he said, came Wal-Mart’s challenge.
Wal-Mart spokesman Greg Rossiter said, “We’re no longer interested in the Embodi trademark.”
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