Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Company sells plumbing fixtures under the trademark TREVI and wants to register the TREVI trademark.  Plumbing fixtures are also sold under the trademark TREVISO by another company.  Are the words TREVI and TREVISO so similar that a buyer of plumbing fixtures would be likely to think that goods from TREVI are probably from TREVISO or be likely to think that TREVI and TREVISO are somehow doing business together?  Are TREVI and TREVISO confusingly similar?

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

I think those are way confusing and similar.

I would compare them, mentally, to the difference between "MacBook" and "MacBook Pro". I think a lot of people would think of is as "Trevi" and "Trevi So".

uspto allowed them BOTH to be registered.

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

Whoops.

That does not make sense.  Does the USPTO operate under the same standards as our US Presidents when it comes to the law?  Democratic and republican alike.

They look at the "overall commercial impression" - which can be a nebulous standard, as we can see.

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

I venture to say they`re different, because `Trevi would be stressed on 1st syllable while Treviso the middle syllable.  Furthermore, both trademarks are probably minor trademarks, so what`s the big deal?  They probably don`t have much marketing and legal muscle.

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the only big deal would be if customers were confused into thinking the two companies were somehow related.

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

Well, USPTO is judge and made that determination, just like it does regarding "obviousness"

Anecdote: my technician -  a self-professed inventor himself even though I pointed out to him that his "inventions" are unpatentable because they`re just repackaged stuff - thinks that my  next-generation inverter invention is obvious, until I remind him that I`ve explained to him its principles at least 5 times yet he still doesn`t quite understand how it works, and nothing that simple exists on the market, and the chance of 100 engineers asked to design an inverter to come up with a similar structure is zero - it`s been like that the last 50-some years.

The Supreme Court is working o the issue of "obviousness".  I`d say that if a device or method could be developed "in a clean room environment" that results in a similar or same device/method, then it`s obvious.


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Go Green and put more money onto your bottom line with award-winning LED-based light bulbs PearlLED. If you manage a good sized store/business and want to boost the bottom line, call us!

could be that your technician is not a person of ordinary skill in the art if he does not understand it.

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com