Asked about 4 years ago - Charleston, SC
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I have a trademark issue. I recently filed the forms to form an LLC under the name "blabla computers".
Few days later I received an email from a company that says it has a product under the name "blabla", and owns 2 USA federal trademark registrations for the "blabla” trademark.
They are concerned that my use of “blabla computers” and domain name www.blablacomputers.net may cause consumer confusion, thus infringing their trademark rights. They request me to contact them in 10 days. What should I do? and how should I proceed, or what should I tell them since I didn’t even receive the paper for my llc?
The below does not constitute legal advice, does not form an attorney-client relationship, and should not be relied upon to take or refrain from taking any action.
If you are using the same trademark as the other party, there may be a trademark issue, and there may not. There are situations where more than one company can have trademark rights in the exact same word, such as Delta (for faucets and airlines) and Pioneer (for electronics and agricultural seeds). So, how similar the trademarks are is one consideration when determining infringement, but not the only one.
The question in these kinds of circumstances is often whether the goods or services offered by the two companies are sufficiently related such that a consumer would be likely to think a company providing the first product or service would be reasonably likely to also provide the second product or service. If your product is in a completely unrelated field, there may not be an issue. You should discuss the issue with a trademark attorney who can give you an idea of how strong the other party's case may be as well as the potential risks and costs if you decide you want to try to use the "blabla" mark over the other party's objection.
I am not your attorney. The information I am providing is merely educational in nature.
If they have the federal trademarks for a product or service that you are planning on offering/selling you should change your company's name. Check out their marks on www.uspto.gov.
It's cheaper and less aggravating to switch and change the name of your company now than to pay later the judgment against your company for trademark infringement. If however you have lots of dollars invested in marketing and advertising (say $100K+) then you could try to negotiate a license from them or a concurrent use. But they don't have to do it.
The key issue is whether you can provide your product/services under a different name than theirs. It doesn't matter what your company is called. It matters what the product or service is called. Unless you want the product and company to match up like Apple COmputer, Microsoft, etc.
Hire a good trademark lawyer and he or she will walk you through what your options would be.
Good luck.
Though you have received good advice it really is not possible to properly answer your question without seeing your mark, seeing their mark(s) and evaluating if you have any chance of prevailing. Hire a trademark attorney if the name is important to you - this is not something you should try and handle on your own.
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