QUESTION
Do you think this trademark would be approved and uphold in a potential law suit?
Asked on Jan 21st, 2014 on Intellectual Property - New Jersey
More details to this question:
Fictitious scenario. There is a company called carmetal. They have a special service called R10A and it is trademarked along with the company name. It is a well known service that deals with car maintenance. The R stands for reliable, the 10 stands for 10 minutes, and the A stands for affordable.The company also offers other services like car maintenance, online support, etc.The company has spent a lot of money promoting it and the company does over $100Million/year. Now there is a someone that starts a company that is more specialized on tires. They called themselves tirefAkers. They come up with a service called T10A. The T stands for tire, the 10 stands for ten minutes and the A stands for their logo in their name and signifies say education for this example (excuse the logic, this is fictitious). They have a similiar biz model. They want to trademark tirefAkers and T10A. Carmetal says they are using our likeness and goodwill to market themselves. Do they have a clam?
1 ANSWER
Intellectual Property Attorney serving Manchester, NH
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Hayes Soloway P.C.
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Trademark infringement is all about consumer confusion. Does a consumer see the T10A service mark and think tirefAkers is related to Carmetal, maybe a subsidiary? If the T10A mark confuses the consumer into believing their may be a relationship with the companies, you have trademark infringement. If there are enough other distinguishing elements that consumers are simply not confused, no infringement.
There are other ways to obtain trademark infringement, such as through dilution, but consumer confusion is the most likely theory in your scenario.
Hope that helps,
Todd
Answered on Jan 22nd, 2014 at 8:45 AM