Trademark register refused? Ugh... (1 Viewer)

[DeathStar1]

I just got a refusal sent to me via my registered email address....

Apparently, my trademark:Heroes Live, is too close to the already registered 'Heroes Live Forever', even though they are pronounced in two completely different ways..

Heroes Live, refers to live Television... Heroes Live, refers to life and living...

They gave me a contact number for the registering attorney..Should I bother calling, or will I get nowhere?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

The usual disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.

Given that there is no clear way of telling how they're pronounced when you're looking at the in print, which is how people would encounter the two names in advertising, news acccounts, etc., I don't think you'll get very far. (In reading your post, I initially read both as "live" with a short "I" until you raised the matter of how they sound.) There is simply too much room for confusion and that's what trademark often comes down to.


Regards,

Joe

 

[Don Black]

Trademark registration, in the U.S. at least, is determined based on various industry classifications.

Thus, I can create a restaurant called "Hunter" and trademark it -- despite the fact that some studio trademarked the same name years ago for a TV show.

Big companies, like Yahoo, register their trademarks across many different classification types (magazines, devices, TV, etc.). They can afford the ~$250 per classification fee that the USPTO charges.

So was your rejection from the USPTO or some service? You might consider registering in another classification, if applicable.

Hope this helps.

 

[DeathStar1]

This was from the USPTO...

I went through four possible names before this, all taken already..I'm starting to run out of ideas..