seeking advice Mispelled Brand names; Equaty vs. Epik

[Bulloney]

Both Equaty and Epik are mispelled, yet to me at least they give the appearance of being actual words. About a year ago I sold EpikAdvisors.com for about a thousand dollars, and more recently I'm looking to create a brand with the word Equaty similar to the way Rob Monster created a brand with the word Epik.

Two of the closest words to Equaty are Equity and Equality, both considered keywords. Thoughts? Advice? Questions?

 

[bhartzer]

This can be a really good strategy, to build a brand on a 'misspelled' word (or you could think of it as creating a new word).

The only issue that I see is the possible trademark issues. I know of plenty of cases where someone registered a misspelling, started a brand using that misspelling, and they got sued. The name was supposedly "confusingly similar" to another name of another business. So, that misspelling could potentially be an issue.

So I recommend that you do your due diligence on the name you're choosing to make sure that there aren't any trademarks that are similar to that name.

 

[Bulloney]

Thanks Bill...that's e

This can be a really good strategy, to build a brand on a 'misspelled' word (or you could think of it as creating a new word).

The only issue that I see is the possible trademark issues. I know of plenty of cases where someone registered a misspelling, started a brand using that misspelling, and they got sued. The name was supposedly "confusingly similar" to another name of another business. So, that misspelling could potentially be an issue.

So I recommend that you do your due diligence on the name you're choosing to make sure that there aren't any trademarks that are similar to that name.

Thanks Bill, that's exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for. I've already done a little due diligence and discovered there are no names using the "mispelled" word Equaty. And to the extent it is misspelled, I guess it's Equity with an "a" instead of an "i"? That said, according to a search at USPTO there are 1,054 live TM's like "Universal Equity", "Equity Share" and "Equity Equality Justice".

I'm not a lawyer, but I have filed for and received three registered® TM's since 2015. The process took from 6-9 months and cost from $300 to $500. In the case of obtaining a TM for Equaty®, i believe the description of services will be important. I think the name is best suited for a financial services company, but I could be convinced differently.

Finally, i'm a little surprised we haven't bumped into each other, and I'll send you a Linkedin message/invite. Thanks again.