Does partial phrase count as infringement?

質問

I have started a new business and now that I have customers, I am formalizing our brand name. I'll use fake words, but the real ones match the pattern exactly. Our company is currently called 'Sanctuary25' and we have rebranded to be called 'Group Sanctuary'. We purchased the domain names, filed llc, etc [including the .com]. We started researching the trademarks and found a trademark already exists with the service mark "Group Sanctuary Marketing". We want to get a trademark on just "Group Sanctuary" but are concerned that it would be flagged as infringing. Any comments or suggestions?

回答: 2 公開 & 0 非公開

2c4bd8c722
IPコンサルタント

Hello, as mentioned below both these trademarks are too similar as the core of these trademarks is the word "Sanctuary". This will nonetheless strongly depend on the classification of your trademark. If you send us a list of the goods or services that you offer to your customers I can let you know the classification of your trademark free of charge.

Steven weinrieb
弁理士

Sorry to have to break this to you, but if the SM Group Sanctuary Marketing is already registered or even in use, there is no way that you are getting a SM for Group Sanctuary - particularly if you are in the same lanes of commerce. Save yourself a lot of problems and choose another mark. TM infringement is based upon the likelihood of confusion in the marketplace - so if company A has the mark Group Sanctuary Marketing and company B wants to use/get a TM/SM for Group Sanctuary, there would obviously be definite confusion in the marketplace because you are effectively using the same mark, even though you are not using the word "Marketing" with your mark. You have not stated what your services are, but maybe you can use "Group" with something else because "Group" is a very common word so the uniqueness of the word "Group" is not that great. "Sanctuary" is a much rarer word/term, so even if you use some other word with "Sanctuary", you may run into problems. As I said, the best advice? Use another mark. The more fanciful or "made up" a mark is, the more unique and stronger the mark. Think of XEROX or GOOGLE - these words/marks had absolutely no meaning until their respective companies starting using them as TMs.

最近の質問

Do people really steal invention ideas?

I sometimes see questions on forums like Quora about how to stop people stealing your invention i...

4 5386 2
Is interpretation of known historical facts protectable under copyright law?

I am looking for useful sources on protecting copyright. I am in the process of writing a book ba...

3 6114 2
Fair Use and news feeds

What is the current wisdom on compiling news feeds on a third party website so far as copyright i...

1 3962 0
Looking for good patent firm

How to find a good patent firm to help me apply patent in USA

3 4320 2
What constitutes 'prior disclosure'?

This might be a silly question but I’m a bit confused by ‘prior disclosure’ as it applies to pate...

2 4823 1

発明や知的財産について質問はありますか?
既存の質問を検索するか、専門家ディレクトリで専門家に直接お問い合わせ下さい。
(このページでは、新規の公開質問は受け付けておりません。)