TRADEMARKS

Trademarks are frequently thought of as those items that identify either a product or a service. This can include names of services (e.g. McDonald's ® for restaurant services) or products (e.g. Coca-Cola ® for soft drinks), logos (e.g. Nike's ® swoosh design), slogans (e.g. American Express' ® Don't Leave Home Without It ®), packaging, sounds and smells. There are over 2,500,000 Trademarks, and over 16,000,000 commercial Common Law trade names in use! An existing Federal Trademark, State Trademark or commercial Common Law use can take precedence over your new business or product name, IF there is a conflict or similarity in sound, appearance or meaning! What exactly is a similarity in Sound, Appearance or Meaning? This is the most complex portion of any legal name research. In order to determine what may or may not be a similarity, one has to be as open minded as possible to include any & all variations that could possibly confuse the common consumer. Some examples may help with this: 1) Joe has a pending Federal trademark for his auto detailing service called It's in the Details. Becky wants to call her new auto detailing service, It is the Details. They are both offering the same service and their trade areas cross. This is a Strong Similarity, based on Sound & Appearance, their crossing of trade areas & Joe's pending Federal application.