Question

Topic: Branding

Brand Registration For A Product

Posted by otanomori on 11/4/2015 at 12:44 AM ET 125 Points
Hello. I am trying to register a brand name for a product. The product is under sports equipment / games category.

Our company's product brand name is currently being used for the title of a web-based community organization promoting sports services(don't know whether they are NPO or for profit). The services and products they offer is in no way similar to ours.

When I checked with WIPO global brand DB, the brand name we apparently have for the product is unregistered. Its current status(by USPTO) is cancelled or dead.

My question is whether or not we can register our brand name and start selling the product?

Thank you in advance for your help.
Many Cheers.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 11/4/2015 at 7:16 AM Accepted
    Your question should be directed to a patent and trademark attorney. We are professional marketers and not in a position to give legal advice.

    From a marketing perspective, the reason you would want to register the trademark is to discourage others from using your mark and perhaps causing you to lose potential profits as a result. Even if the mark were registered (to you), you would need to police the mark yourself, prove damages, and pursue legal action at your own expense if someone infringes. Are you prepared to do that? It gets very expensive very fast.
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 11/4/2015 at 12:08 PM Accepted
    This does vary a lot by country, but because you are looking at the US Patent Office, I am assuming you are in the US? If so, I second the attorney. If someone already is using the brand name, even if it can't be confused with yours, there are still a lot of risks that the original user will complain. An example where non-competing areas was how the World Wildlife Federation forced the World Wrestling Federation to stop using WWF, and change their name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) because of perceived name confusion.
  • Posted by Shelley Ryan on 12/2/2015 at 5:15 PM Moderator
    Hi Everyone,

    I am closing this question since there hasn't been much recent activity.

    Thanks for participating!

    Shelley
    MarketingProfs
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