Bioheat Trademark Defended by NBB and NORA
“Bioheat” is a registered trademark of the National Biodiesel Board—and don’t you forget it. (image: biodieselmagazine.com)
The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) reached a settlement in its lawsuit against a New Hampshire company that had used the term BioHeatUSA to market wood burning heating systems, reported Biodiesel Magazine. Paul Nazzaro, petroleum liaison for NBB, called the settlement “a win for the environment, the industry and consumers using cleaner burning Bioheat heating oil.”
“Bioheat” has been a registered trademark of the NBB since 2006, and the trademark was licensed to the National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) so that NORA could make it available to retail and wholesale heating oil dealers. The term is used to refer to heating oil blended with biodiesel.
Earlier this year the NBB filed the lawsuit against Tarm USA Inc., which was marketing wood burning heating systems under the name BioHeatUSA. In the settlement, Tarm USA Inc. agreed to stop using the name within six months, and to stop using a domain name that included the Bioheat name.
“We are dead set on protecting the Bioheat identity,” said Nazzaro. “Protecting the Bioheat trademark is about protecting the integrity of the product on behalf of the entire industry and the more than 300 dealers who offer the fuel.”
As NORA’s website states, the purpose of the trademark is to create a “name that consumers will understand and recognize” for the environmentally friendly blend of heating oil and biodiesel. In the confusing welter of names trying to showcase green bona fides—biodiesel, biofuel, biomass—the heating oil and biodiesel industries want to distinguish their product from others. It’s especially important when biodiesel, the type of biofuel compatible with heating oil that’s derived from many different sources (such as waste cooking oil) avoid the problems and controversies—namely, the potential that biofuel feedstocks compete with food sources for land and create more carbon emissions than fossil fuels—that have hampered the development of other biofuels.
