The examining attorney appears aware of SEO for search engine marketing. I doubt the applicant will be able to secure a service mark for it, especially if it will have lots of opposition. Probably a "better" and more "acceptable" way to go about it is like what the National Association of Realtors would do for the REALTOR mark. Of course, it is easier said than done, especially if lacking the resources to turn that into a bit of reality.
It won't happen, it's in the final stage of the process where effected parties can file opposing the mark being granted.. And there are a lot of use filing against it. This has been going on since May last year, he's been knocked back several times and had to reword his claim a lot from the original to try and sneak through. Also he fails on the first use of the mark in connection with a business, he filed he has been using it since 2004 however i and many others have domains with the SEO mark being used since 1997.
I own seoedu.info so if they come after me than I'll have to tell them that It was there before the law. I doubt this is even possible, though.
General terms cannot be trademarked. I remember a case locally in southern California where one radio station TRIED to enforce a trademark of "talk radio", but it was thrown out because it was a general term. Which is exactly what SEO is.
"SEO" has been in universal public usage for so long, I doubt that any one organization has a chance of trademarking it and having it hold up in a court of law. It would be kind of like trying to trademark (or in this case, to copyright) the centuries-old King James Bible!
The problem is that I have just found out thru reliable resources, that the applicant is receiving major funding from major sources and corporations (think search engines as well, not just SEOs) hoping for him to accomplish his mission and gaining part of the control it will enable him to have. So at this point and time, I predict a very long battle.
I own: SEOevo.com and SEOtasks.com and this was a year before this news to appear, so I will not drop this domains even if thus guy will get this trademark for SEO, it will be unfair...
You should not only look at your own names. You should look at the future. Of course he will never be able to obtain ownership of seobook.com or seomoz.org but regardless, this is not about your domain names or any registered before he filed. It is about the future of the business.. Got it?
Haha, why'd they even try that? Let's list a couple websites that are about SEO that would quickly file lol Seobook... Seowall... Seochat.... must I continue? I mean SERIOUSLY, thats like trademarking an industry!
Its too generic to be trademarked, Even as a service mark it. No one person can own the official service to "SEO" something (A website).