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Trademark with USPTO Registration
Posted by Anonymous . updated on 2/26/2009
Assume a currently-existing website has a domain name that they have been using for several years, which is also their company name. They have not registered their trademark with the USPTO.
Another company has registered a confusingly-similar name in a somewhat related industry after the first company. They have registered their trademark with the USPTO.
Does the first company have any grounds for making the second company stop using the name? What about vice-versa?
Answers (2)
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Lyza
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Quote Does the first company have any grounds for making the second company stop using the name? What about vice-versa?
I am not an attorney and you should confer with an attorney to confirm the validity of my statements here, but a short answer is possibly to both.
It is my understanding that an existing trademark registration can be used to secure a domain name but not the reverse. If, however, the domain name and/or trade name are also in use as trademarks to offer the same or confusingly similar g/s, and have been offering them in interstate commerce longer than has the second company's mark, there might be an actionable issue.
Again, if an attorney does not respond here with either the approval or correction of my remarks, I suggest you seek outside counsel to make sure of my statements.
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JSonnab...
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Stated rather simply, the first party to use a mark has superior rights to those who start using the mark later, even if the junior party registers the mark and the senior party does not. Again, stated rather simply, superior rights translate into an ability to stop a junior user's use of the mark.
- Jeff
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