I’ve previously written about trademark infringement scams being sent to bloggers, but a real case arrived in my e-mail yesterday from City Pass, who owns the trademarks for CityPASS® and CITY PASS® in the U.S.

The e-mail was about my post using the term “Go City pass” to refer to the digital travel passes sold by Go City.

The Trademark Infringement E-mail

Below is the text of the e-mail. It was polite and to the point. They gave the exact instances of use, attached a screenshot where uses were highlighted and suggested how to fix it by inserting a word between “city” and “pass.”

Hello Candy,

I am writing on behalf of City Pass, Inc. to request revisions to an article on your blog that utilizes our trademark in association with another brand. We understand you may not have been aware that City Pass owns the registered trademarks for both CityPASS® and CITY PASS® in the U.S. It is important to note that referring to another product as a “city pass,” using the term “city pass” generically, or labeling a category of products as “city passes” when promoting to a U.S. audience poses issues for the protection of our intellectual property.

We would greatly appreciate your assistance in safeguarding our trademarks and preventing consumer confusion. Go City is aware of this trademark protection and can offer alternative ways to promote their products. We ask that revisions be made, or that we receive a response by December 31st.

Simply inserting another word between “Go City” and “pass” will resolve the issue. We have attached a document highlighting the specific uses we noted. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you for your cooperation.

Best regards,

Jennifer Brannen
Vice President & Chief Marketing

CityPASS® vs. “city pass”: What’s Actually Protected

CityPASS® and CITY PASS® are registered trademarks. That protection applies to:

• The exact brand name
• Its stylized form
• Its use as a source identifier (meaning readers think it’s that company)

Trademark law is about consumer confusion, not ownership of everyday words. The company doesn’t own the word “city” or “pass” individually—and it doesn’t automatically control every lowercase use of the phrase.

When “city pass” is Allowed

According to ChatGPT and Google, they say you’re generally in the clear if you use “city pass” descriptively, not as a brand name. However, the e-mail from CityPASS® makes it sound like you are never allowed to use term “city pass” unless referring to their company.

Examples of how you are supposed to be allowed to use the words city and pass together:

• You’re describing a type of product
• You’re clearly talking about Go City, not CityPASS® or CITY PASS®
• There’s no implication of sponsorship or affiliation

That’s called nominative or descriptive use, and it’s well-established in trademark law. And I feel my article was VERY clear I was talking about the passes at Go City and not CityPASS® or CITY PASS®.

However, I’m not a lawyer and you can’t trust everything you learn from the Internet, so in this case, it was just easier to comply with their request and remove all mentions of the words “city pass” and insert the word “travel” or “app” between each mention.

What Happens if You Ignore Trademark Infringement?

Since I gave in to their request and altered my document, I should be fine. The next step if I ignored them would be a formal Cease and Desist letter. I have actually gotten one of those before!

A FedEx guy asked me to sign for a delivery, and I saw it was from Lucas Films. Wow, how exciting!

Unfortunately, inside was an official Cease and Desist letter demanding I stop making Slave Leia costumes because it was now trademarked and being sold by Rubies Costumes. The instructions were to send them a handwritten letter saying I would not make and sell them.

So I did, and from that day on, I only made Sci-Fi Slave Princess costumes. And I never heard from Lucas Films again.

But if you do ignore a trademark infringement it will most likely lead to an expensive lawsuit, and they could have your platform taken down as a result of “willful use” after you’ve been notified. So it’s never a good idea to ignore something like this.

I’m still waiting to hear back from CityPASS® and CITY PASS® to see if my changes were acceptable.