Trademark Advice

[Stud]

Hello everyone! I am currently in the process of starting a clothing company. I'm preparing to get a business license and start ordering merchandise. Through this process I have been doing research on a lot of things and one of them being getting our brand trademarked. As I was searching the USPTO I came across a mark "Southern Brand" that is currently in use. The drawing code is 4 and it falls into our mark category of Goods and Services/Clothing. The name of our company is "Southern Brand Company" and the drawing code for it would be a 3, but I'm not sure if that matters. I am pretty concerned that our mark my be denied as it could be deemed confusing for customers. However, I feel like the mark is pretty generic and therefore "weak", which could open the possibility for our mark to get accepted. Also, the mark is registered and operates locally in FL and we are based in AL. If anyone with any experience or knowledge on the issue could help me out that would be great. I don't want to infringe on their work, but I also don't want to flush everything I've done down the drain and go back to the drawing board if there's a possibility that we could still use the name.

[Harold Mansfield]

This isn't one of those things that we can just hear about and give you reliable advice. If it's this detrimental to continuing you have to consult a trademark attorney and get reliable, dependable advice. The alternative is not doing that, hoping, and guessing and down the road still have to flush everything you've done down the drain and go back to the drawing board except now it costs you even more money or shuts you down completely.

From a marketing stand point. Doesn't matter if you can get away with it. It's too close. You both do clothing, and you are both in the south ( Neighboring states) For many you will create brand confusion and YOU will look like you are piggy backing off of someone elses hard work and success which will work against you. If you are using real names here, there's also a company called "Southern Branding", that ALSO does clothing and logo-ed stuff and "Southern Company" which isn't clothing, but they're all just way to close.

I have a pretty simple rule when naming stuff. If I can't register the domain name exactly as I need it, or if someone else has it, forget it. Today that's the first step that it's probably trademarked, in use, used to be something else that has a bad rep, or someone is holding it in a portfolio somewhere that anyone can buy later and use against me.

I know you have your heart set on it and think it's a great name, and apparently it is..for other people who are already using it.

I've had my heart set on many names, but there's always another to be had. As I got more experience I learned not to get my heart set on anything before I investigate if it's available. You could call it a lesson learned, be glad you caught it before it was too late, and move on and find yourself an original name that you can use to brand and market your own identity without any confusion with someone else.

It will only take a few times of having to explain "No, I'm not that company..." before you realize that you made a mistake.

Hate to quote another brand, but "Be different. Not the same".


JMO of course.

[sayluv]

agree 100%. Move on. Been going through the same myself. Took a long time for me to get over it, but better now to change your name now then deal with it later. Read this. Very clear on trademark law with examples.

Likelihood of Confusion: How Do You Determine If a Trademark is Infringing? | Nolo.com (http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/likelihood-confusion-how-do-you-determine-trademark-infringing.html)