Soar to Success December 2020

Protecting Your Brand: Just what is “Confusingly Similar”? By Maritza Nelson, JD The most common reason for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to refuse a trademark registration is because there is a “likelihood of confusion” between the mark you applied for and an already registered mark. Put simply, in order to protect consumers, two trademarks generally cannot be “confusingly similar” to one another when used on “related goods or services.” What makes two different trademarks similar? When examining a trademark application, the USPTO looks for certain similarities: spelling variations (Dogs vs. Dogz), words that sound the same when spoken aloud (Xceed vs. X-Seed), visual similarities, similar meanings or translations (K-9 vs Dog), or words or images