We are releasing a SaaS product within the month on its own domain. Before launching the new product we wanted to secure a trademark in the name. During the process we received an office action for: SECTION 2(d) REFUSAL â LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION
The trademark office claims we are in conflict with a competitor company/domain which is Docu*****.com while our domain is Doc*****.com (just without the "U"). For the sake of argument replace the ***** with an example word such as "Read". The trademark office also thinks customers will confusingly mistake us for our competitor.
The business area provides a very broad scope of services offered. Both pertain to document services. We are going to attempt to fight the office action in the defense that the words DOC and READ***** are two broad words having many meanings and can be used in combination.
We want to use the domain at any cost as it is a crucial part to our business. I am afraid that if the trademark office rejects our amendment or actually moves it into the opposition period that our competitor will attempt to fight us for having a similar name.
I am now entertaining the idea of creating a limited liability company in the name. Originally it was operated under another business name. Would that offer any protection from potentially loosing the name or domain? If we do not have a trademark how much of a chance does our competitor have at successfully making us C&D the use of our domain name? What are our options?
Thanks
The trademark office claims we are in conflict with a competitor company/domain which is Docu*****.com while our domain is Doc*****.com (just without the "U"). For the sake of argument replace the ***** with an example word such as "Read". The trademark office also thinks customers will confusingly mistake us for our competitor.
The business area provides a very broad scope of services offered. Both pertain to document services. We are going to attempt to fight the office action in the defense that the words DOC and READ***** are two broad words having many meanings and can be used in combination.
We want to use the domain at any cost as it is a crucial part to our business. I am afraid that if the trademark office rejects our amendment or actually moves it into the opposition period that our competitor will attempt to fight us for having a similar name.
I am now entertaining the idea of creating a limited liability company in the name. Originally it was operated under another business name. Would that offer any protection from potentially loosing the name or domain? If we do not have a trademark how much of a chance does our competitor have at successfully making us C&D the use of our domain name? What are our options?
Thanks