Hello Anisoptera-ga, and thank you for a challenging, and fairly
nuanced question.
I have answered your question below, but first, I'd like to begin with
two important caveats:
1. I don't consider this question to be fully answered until you are
satisfied with the results. If any part of my answer is not clear, or
needs elaboration, please use the "Request Answer Clarification"
button to ask for further information before rating this answer.
2. I am not a lawyer. Although I am confident about the information
I have provided you, I would certainly suggest contacting a lawyer to
have the full benefit of a professional legal response.
As to your question about the use of the phrase "certified medical
technician", this is a term of art that is in use, and you would be
ill-advised to use this specific term in any capacity if you were not,
in fact, a "certified medical technician" with training from a
recognized institution.
However, I believe the real focus of your question had to do with use
of the phrase "CMT". Once again, the answer is that CMT is indeed
protected by certain aspects of intellectual property law, but that
does not mean you cannot make use of it for your own purposes.
Laws protecting trademarks, service marks, and the like are designed
to prevent a reasonable person from being confused as to the identity
of a particular good or service. One person can call the service they
provide "ABC News" and another can call their service "ABC Plumbing"
and there's no real conflict -- most people can be expected to
understand the difference between the two.
There's a nice writeup on the basic principles of trademarks, etc. at
this site:
http://www.ggmark.com
Have a look at the "Trademark Topics" links ("What is a Mark?", etc.)
for a good overview.
In actual fact, the CMT combination of letters is used by a fair
number of people in a fair number of different settings. For
instance:
Country Music Television -- www.cmt.com
CMT woodworking tools -- www.cmtusa.com
Corvallis Microtechnology -- www.cmtinc.com
and so on and so on. There are thousands of them!
Some of the uses of CMT are very close to the "Certified Medical
Technician" term you inquired about, such as:
Certified Medical Transcriptionist
Certified Member Trainer
Computer Maintenance Technician
Certified Music Therapist
Certified Maintenance Technician
and of course...
Certified Massage Therapist
As a matter of fact, a Google search on "Certified Massage Therapist"
(with the quotes) yields 10,600 hits, whereas a similar search on
"Certified Medical Technician" results in only 222 hits! If anyone
should be concerned about encroaching on a recognized use, it should
be the medical-CMTs.
Bottom line, there is no need to worry about stepping on the toes of
other professions by using CMT to indicate "certified massage
therapist". Having said that, though, I do want to advise you to
proceed carefully. Each state (or county or city) can have its own
requirements about using terms like "certified" to describe work being
done. You should inquire with local licensing authorities to make
sure you are staying within bounds of local rules.
Well, I hope that answers your question, but like I said, feel free to
request clarification. I doubt if I'll write anymore tonight,
however. To tell you the truth, I can use a good massage (from a CMT,
of course). |
