trademarking a company name
When trademarking a company name --How similar is too similar for the trademark office to reject your application. 1 word, 2 words? What if it's 2 words but a different type of service business?
Re: trademarking a company name
As a technical matter, a company name as such isn't a trademark. However, a company name (or its prominent words) is often used as a trademark, sometimes in stylized type or along with graphics.
The legal test used by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("US PTO")is whether the trademark you apply for, when used on the goods or in connection with the services you recite, would create a likelihood of confusion in the minds of prospective customers as to the source or sponsorship of the goods or services.
Is there a particular number of words or letters that would need to be the same? Unfortunately, no. Various factors are considered, including how the words look, how they sound, what they mean, and the kind of scrutiny that would be given to them by the typical customer of the goods in question.
Attorneys including myself who focus their work on intellectual property, generally keep track of the various decisions of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the US PTO and get a "feel" for how close is likely to be "too" close.
Re: trademarking a company name
As a technical matter, a company name as such isn't a trademark. However, a company name (or its prominent words) is often used as a trademark, sometimes in stylized type or along with graphics.
The legal test used by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("US PTO")is whether the trademark you apply for, when used on the goods or in connection with the services you recite, would create a likelihood of confusion in the minds of prospective customers as to the source or sponsorship of the goods or services.
Is there a particular number of words or letters that would need to be the same? Unfortunately, no. Various factors are considered, including how the words look, how they sound, what they mean, and the kind of scrutiny that would be given to them by the typical customer of the goods in question.
Attorneys including myself who focus their work on intellectual property, generally keep track of the various decisions of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the US PTO and get a "feel" for how close is likely to be "too" close.
