Title 09, Title 09: Commerce and Trade

§ 2510. Pay-per-call fulfillment services It shall be an unlawful practice for a sponsor to sell or offer for sale pay-per-call services that involve provision of value-added information, not product sales, with a supplemental tangible item sent free of charge to the customer aft…

§ 2511. Automatic dialing devices It shall be an unlawful practice for a sponsor to utilize equipment programmed to randomly or sequentially dial telephone numbers to advertise, promote, or initiate pay-per-call services. (Added 1993, No. 99, § 2.)

§ 2512. Chain referral services It shall be an unlawful practice for a sponsor to sell or offer for sale pay-per-call services that require a caller to access more than one pay-per-call service in order to receive the full benefit of the service. (Added 1993, No. 99, § 2.)

§ 2513. Automatic billing arrangements It shall be an unlawful practice for a sponsor to initiate or make available pay-per-call services that impose a pay-per-call charge on persons as a result of a call placed to them, or that impose a pay-per-call charge on persons who have ma…

§ 2514. Billing for pay-per-services; Public Utility Commission authority (a) Every local exchange company and interexchange carrier providing billing and collection services for pay-per-call services doing business in this State shall: (1) list all charges for pay-per-call servi…

§ 2515. Service agent All sponsors who are doing business in this State and whose principal place of business is out-of-state shall establish within the State an authorized agent for service of process. (Added 1993, No. 99, § 2.)

§ 2516. Violations (a) A violation of this chapter is deemed to be a violation of section 2453 of this title, the State’s general civil antifraud statute. This section shall not be construed to limit a person’s liability under any other law. (b) With respect to a pay-per-call ser…

§ 2517. Charitable gift annuities (a) Definitions. As used in this section: (1) “Annuity obligation” means the present value of the charity’s payment obligation to the donor as calculated by the Internal Revenue Code actuarial tables. (2) “Charitable gift annuity” means an annuit…

§ 2518. Enforcement and remedies (a) Enforcement. The Attorney General shall enforce the provisions of section 2517 of this title and may bring an action in the name of the State against a charitable organization for noncompliance, to restrain by temporary or permanent injunction…

§ 2521. Trademark defined The term “trademark” as used in this subchapter includes any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof, adopted and used: (1) by a manufacturer or merchant to identify his or her goods and distinguish them from those manufactured or sold …

§ 2522. Registration Every person who adopts and uses any trademark for the purpose of designating, making known, and distinguishing any merchandise, goods, wares, or other products of labor, manufactured, produced, compounded, sold, or offered for sale in this State may, subject…

§ 2523. Certificate of registration; filing fee There shall be paid to the Secretary of State for the filing of such statement a fee of $35.00. The Secretary of State shall deliver to the person filing such statement or causing the same to be filed a certificate of registration u…

§ 2524. Duration and renewal Registrations recorded under the provisions of this subchapter shall be effective for 10 years and shall be renewable for like periods upon application to the Secretary of State and payment of the fee specified in section 2523 of this title. Registran…

§ 2525. Assignments Title to any trademark and its registration hereunder may be transferred and assigned to any person together with the goodwill of the business to which such trademark pertains or with that part of the goodwill of the business connected with the use of and symb…

§ 2526. Applications for registration; classification All applications for registration of a trademark and renewals or assignments thereof shall be on forms prescribed by the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State shall establish classes of merchandise for the purpose of trad…

§ 2527. Suitability for registration (a) The Secretary of State shall not register a trademark that consists of or comprises immoral, deceptive, or scandalous matter; or matter that may disparage or falsely suggest a connection with persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs,…

§ 2528. Fraudulent registration Any person who shall for himself, herself, or on behalf of any other person, procure the filing and registration of any trademark by making knowingly and willfully any false or fraudulent representations or declarations, verbally, or in writing, or…

§ 2529. Enjoining use of counterfeits or imitations A person who has adopted and registered a trademark as aforesaid, may proceed by suit to enjoin the manufacture, use, display, or sale of any counterfeits or imitations thereof, and the Superior Court may grant injunctions to re…

§ 2530. Violations Subject to the provisions of section 2532 of this title, no person shall knowingly and willfully: (1) falsely make, counterfeit, imitate, sell, offer for sale, or in any way utter or circulate any trademark that has been registered in accordance with the provis…

§ 2531. Penalties Subject to the provisions of section 2532 of this title, any person who violates any of the provisions of section 2530 of this title shall be fined not more than $500.00 or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both, and shall be liable to pay all damages su…

§ 2532. Prior rights Nothing in this subchapter shall adversely affect the rights or the enforcement of rights in marks acquired in good faith at any time at common law. (Amended 2021, No. 20, § 26.)

§ 2571. Publication and registration of name or mark of owner A person or corporation engaged in buying, selling, or dealing in milk, cream, or nonintoxicating beverages in receptacles, or a licensed buyer, dealer in, or vendor of, intoxicating beverages, whose name, mark, or oth…

§ 2572. Penalty for use of mark without consent of owner A person who, without the owner’s consent, buys, sells, takes, uses in his or her business, conceals, or disposes of a receptacle belonging to a person or corporation that has complied with the provisions of section 2571 of…

§ 2573. Mutilating receptacle or erasing name; penalty A person who willfully destroys, mutilates, or defaces a receptacle bearing the name or other device of an owner who has complied with the provisions of section 2571 of this title, or willfully erases, mars, covers, or change…

§ 2574. Destroying or polluting butter crates or carriers; penalty A person who puts any unclean or foul matter into a receptacle, the owner of which has complied with the provisions of section 2571 of this title, or who mutilates, destroys, or pollutes a butter crate or carrier,…

§ 2575. Search warrant; judicial proceedings If a person or corporation that has complied with the provisions of section 2571 of this title, or the agent of such person or corporation, makes oath before a judge of a Criminal Division of the Superior Court that he or she has reaso…

§ 2601. Definitions (a) As used in this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise, “mobile home” means: (1) A mobile home as defined in 10 V.S.A. § 6201. (2) An unmotorized vehicle, other than a travel or recreational trailer, designed to be towed and designed or equipped fo…

§ 2602. Sale or transfer; price disclosure; mobile home uniform bill of sale (a) Appraisal; disclosure. When a mobile home is sold or offered for sale: (1) If a mobile home is appraised, the appraisal shall include a cover sheet that itemizes the value of the unsited mobile home,…

§ 2603. Financing of mobile homes; creditors’ remedies; retail installment contract disclosure (a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, a mobile home may be financed under chapter 59 of this title, or under subdivision 41a(b)(4) of this title. (b) A mobile home t…

§ 2604. Real estate deeds for mobile homes (a) Any mobile home purchased from a mobile home dealer on or after July 1, 2008 that is financed as residential real estate pursuant to subsection 2603(b) of this title shall be conveyed by a warranty deed drafted in substantially the f…

§ 2605. Mobile home bill of sale conversion process The owner of any mobile home that was initially financed pursuant to a motor vehicle loan, motor vehicle retail installment contract, or another form of chattel mortgage shall, if the mobile home is subsequently financed as resi…

§ 2606. Relocating mobile homes to another municipality or state (a) If a deed for any mobile home is recorded by the clerk of the municipality in which the mobile home is sited, and if that mobile home is relocated to another site within the State of Vermont, the owner of the mo…

§ 2607. Penalty A person who violates a provision of this chapter: (1) except for violations of subsection 2603(e) of this title, shall be fined not more than $5,000.00 for each occurrence; and (2) shall be subject to all the remedies and penalties available to a consumer and the…

§ 2608. Municipal action for sale of abandoned mobile home (a) In the alternative to the process for foreclosure of a tax lien on a mobile home pursuant to 32 V.S.A. chapter 133, a municipality shall have the authority to commence an action to sell at public auction an abandoned …

§ 2631. Regulation of weights and measures All weights and measures and weighing and measuring devices used in this State shall be regulated by the Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets in accordance with this chapter. (Added 1967, No. 102, § 6, eff. April 14, 1967; amended …

§ 2632. General powers and duties of Secretary (a) The Secretary shall have the custody of the State standards of weight and measure and of the other standards and equipment provided for by this chapter, and shall keep accurate records of them. The Secretary shall enforce the pro…

§ 2633. Specific powers and duties of Secretary; rules (a) The Secretary shall issue from time to time reasonable rules for the enforcement of this chapter, which rules shall have the force and effect of law. The rules may include (1) standards of net weight, measure, or count, a…

§ 2634. Testing at State-supported institutions The Secretary shall test all weights and measures used in checking the receipt or disbursement of supplies in every institution for the maintenance of which monies are appropriated by the Legislature. (Added 1967, No. 102, § 9, eff.…

§ 2635. General testing (a) When not otherwise provided by law, the Secretary may inspect and test, to ascertain if they are correct, all weights and measures kept, offered, or exposed for sale. The Secretary shall, within a 12-month period, or more or less frequently as deemed n…

§ 2636. Investigations The Secretary shall investigate complaints made to him or her concerning violations of this chapter, and shall, upon his or her own initiative, conduct such investigations as he or she deems appropriate and advisable to develop information on prevailing pro…

§ 2637. Inspection of packages The Secretary shall, from time to time, weigh or measure and inspect packages or amounts of commodities kept, offered, or exposed for sale, sold, or in the process of delivery, to determine whether they contain the amounts represented and whether th…

§ 2638. Stop-use, stop-removal, and removal orders The Secretary may issue stop-use orders, stop-removal orders, and removal orders with respect to weights and measures being, or susceptible of being, commercially used, and issue stop-removal orders and removal orders with respec…

§ 2639. Disposition of correct and incorrect apparatus The Secretary shall approve for use and seal or mark with appropriate devices such weights and measures as he or she finds upon inspection and test to be “correct” as defined in section 2633 of this title, and shall reject an…

§ 2640. Police powers; right of entry and stoppage With respect to the enforcement of this chapter and any other laws dealing with weights and measures that he or she is, or may be, empowered to enforce, the Secretary is vested with full police powers, and may arrest, without for…

§ 2641. Powers and duties of inspector The powers and duties given to the Secretary by sections 2634-2640 and 2767 of this title are also given to and imposed upon the inspectors when acting under the instructions and at the direction of the Secretary. (Added 1967, No. 102, § 16,…

§ 2642. Duty of owners of incorrect apparatus Weights and measures that have been rejected under the authority of the Secretary or of an inspector shall remain subject to the control of the rejecting authority until such time as suitable repair or disposition thereof has been mad…