Tractor Giant Wants Square-Dancers to Relinquish Trademark

Case New Holland ("CNH") has filed a petition with the USPTO to cancel a trademark owned by Iowa farmers who use CNH tractors for a touring square-dance show.

Since 1998, 11 farmers from Nemaha, Iowa have been touring their square-dancing tractors under the trademarked name Farmall Promenade.  Now CNH, which currently owns a trademark for tractors under the Farmall name, wants the farmers' trademark cancelled.

CNH maintains that it has no desire to shut down the square-dancing machines; it simply wants to protect the Farmall name on apparel.  But the farmers believe their trademark allows them to sell T-shirts and similar merchandise bearing the Farmall Promenade name.

Says one farmer, "We're fighting it because we don't think we've done anything wrong."