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Written by : Johnny Tetterton |
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I love this question from Korra what right does anyone have to trademark a basic common word and tell anyone else that they cannot use it in their business name in this case the word is Road which isn't the title of our business name and roads is in theirs my name is Andre Minka from the founder of trademark Factory on this channel I've answered hundreds of questions just like this one and if you're interested in my opinion or just to learn about brands trademarks entrepreneurship intellectual property make sure you subscribe and get notified whenever the next video goes live and if you've got a question for me post a comment below and I'll answer your question in the video just like this one so going back to this question what right does anyone have to trademark a basic common word road versus roads well here's my answer to this questionanyone can trademark basic common words because trademarking is not about unique words unique phrases unique designs trademarks are about unique identifiers for products and services and there's a huge difference there you're not required to come up with fully original worth like think about it one of the most valuable brands out there Apple what could be more common than that but the word Apple uniquely identifies their brand the phones for computers for music right because they're not selling apples so as long as your company is not in a road construction business and as long as the other company is not in the road construction business then Road does not define what you do then it could be a word that's trademark able and if they had trademarked it first and they're in the same space as you are then not only do they have the right to trademark their brand not only do they have the right to enforce their trademark against you using it without their permission they'd be crazy not to because that's the whole idea for trademarking brands that you are given the monopoly over the use of your brand and you have the exclusive right to it and you have the right and almost an obligation to defend it against anybody else who uses the same brand without your permission you you have to do that because otherwise if everyone sees that you are allowing others to use your brand without your permission they're diluting your brand they're killing the value of your brand they're killing the value of your trademark at some point you will lose the ability to enforce your brand against others so again I don't know exactly what they trademarked I don't know exactly what your name is because you say the reward road is part of theirs and yours again being part of something is vague right depending on how dominant that word is in the whole brand for them and for you also host similar the products and services are that they offer that you offer maybe they're right maybe they're wrong but to go back to your point perfectly okay to trademark dictionary common words perfectly okay to enforce them against those who use the same or similar brand in connection with same or similar products and services they're doing what they're supposed to be doing and if you are not sure this is probably something that you should discuss with your attorneys now one last point before I call it a day with this video if you start a business and you give it a name it's your responsibility as the business owner to make sure that that's the name you can own and the next step is for you to actually make sure that you own the name because guess what what is the most important thing to make your brand a success the most important thing to make your brand a success is to make sure that it's your brand because if it's not your brand you can never make your brand a success because it's not your brand and the way to do it is with a trademark so I trade my factory that's what we do we help business owners protect their brands if you came up with a name and you want to see if it's trademark able go bulk a call with our strategy advisors to coalesce free go to trademark factory calm for it slash coal or just go to the homepage and the first big button you're gonna see is to book a free call with our strategy advisors do that and we'll take it from there if you like this video if you found it useful make sure you like this video make sure you subscribe make sure your comment below if you've got a comment if you've got a question and until then I will see you in the next video
Thanks for your comment Blair Gergen, have a nice day.
- Johnny Tetterton, Staff Member
what is considered confusingly similar a viewer wants to know so i'm going to spend the next three minutes discussing that issue i'm angela langlotz trademark and copyright attorney and i go live here on weekdays to discuss trademarks and copyrights so a viewer asked they commented on one of my youtube videos with a question which is what you can do if you have questions they said what is considered confusingly similar well something a trademark so we have two trademarks we've got the senior mark and then we've got the junior mark and so we ask ourselves is the junior mark confusingly similar to the senior mark such that registration of the junior mark would create a likelihood of consumer confusion with regard to the source of the goods and services behind the two marks if the answer is yes all right if there is a likelihood of confusion then the junior mark will not register so how close can we get well it's one of those multi-factor tests and there's a lot of factors but one of the big factors is are the goods similar or related if the goods are similar or related for the junior mark and the senior mark then that ups the likelihood that there will be a finding that the junior mark and the senior mark the junior mark is confusingly similar to the senior mark so we have to look at the goods if the goods are the same or similar or related then we also ask how close are the trademarks do they sound the same do they give a similar commercial impression do they look similar are they so similar that a consumer would be confused if they saw thing one and thing two on the shelf side by side they be confused and think that maybe thing two and thing one came from the same company the same source if the answer to that is yes then there is a high degree of likelihood that they they will be found confusingly similar and the junior mark will not issue so it's not just one thing that we can look at we have to look at how related the goods are that is a big question here so sometimes people think oh well i can avoid any any confusingly similar uh problems if i just add an s or if i spell it differently but it sounds the same and those things are incorrect all right so you can't just say it's not confusingly similar because you spell it differently or because you added an s those things don't neither of those things has any power to distinguish between the senior mark and the junior mark which is what we really need to do here so if the consumer would look at it and say that it's they're they're likely to be confused then the marks are confusingly similar so it's a pretty it sounds like a pretty straightforward analysis but because of all the factors involved it can be a lot more than that so this is why we recommend having an attorney do a trademark search before you file a trademark application because we tend to know a little bit closer where the lines are between the junior mark and the senior mark and we could advise you about that i'm angela langlotz you can find me online at trademarkdoctor.net on youtube just go search trademark doctor i've got over 450 videos there now you can also find me on facebook at facebook.com forward slash trademark doctor and on at parlour.com forward slash trademark doctor message me no don't message me i used to say message me i keep forgetting drop any questions that you have about trademark and copyright law into the comments and i will answer them just as i've done here in a future live video
Thanks Noah your participation is very much appreciated
- Johnny Tetterton
About the author
I've studied relativistic kinematics at Immaculata University in Immaculata and I am an expert in trigonometry. I usually feel calm. My previous job was student financial aid administrator I held this position for 14 years, I love talking about shooting and word search puzzles. Huge fan of Hailey Baldwin I practice triathlon and collect coins.
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