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I trademarked my company name/logo through the state of Indiana. Since I included the symbol (logo) with this trademark, is the company name and the symbol protected? For example if my trademark is "Company Name", would another company be in violation if they used Company Name Mowing, Company Name Irrigation, etc.?

Submitted: 249 days and 14 hours ago.

Category: Intellectual Property Law

Value: $15

Status: AWAITING CUSTOMER ACTION

Indianapolis, Indiana

Posted by Alex Reese 249 days and 11 hours ago.

Answer

The standard for TM infringement is whether there is a 'likelihood of confusion' as to the origin of the goods/services in the eyes of the consumer....this is not a brightline rule but you can apply your best judgment based on whether you think consumers would get your respective companies confused after seeing the mark. This may depend on how famous/widespread your mark is in the area you are trying to enforce it and the strength of your mark i.e. is it fanciful/arbitrary (like "Apple" for computers) or merely descriptive of hte goods/services (like 'John's Mowing') the latter are weaker marks.

249 days and 9 hours ago.

Reply

Just to confirm the first part of my question, when trademarking my company name and including the symbol in the application, the name and symbol are included in that trademark?

Accepted Answer

The Federal Trademark system requires you to file the logo and the word mark as separate marks (assuming they are separable), but Indiana's state procedures may be different and not require separation...I am not familiar with Indiana's TM rules but if you did not see anything preventing it and they allowed it then it should be okay. If it was a problem then they would have notified you, so both the marks should be covered otherwise.

Accepts:
Expert:	Alex Reese
Pos. Feedback:	100.0 %
Answered:	3/18/2009

Lawyer

5 years experience in intellectual property law

249 days and 9 hours ago.

Reply

On the Indiana application there is one line asking for the Trademark / Service Mark. Then on the next line it asks "Does the mark involve a symbol, design or any non-standard type face?". So of course I marked Yes and included my logo. So my assumption was that the name and the symbol are covered.

Thank you for your assistance.

Posted by Alex Reese 249 days and 9 hours ago.

Answer

Yes I think you are right, if you had to file them separately it would have said something to that effect at that line.

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Indianapolis, Indiana

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Reply

Just to confirm the first part of my question, when trademarking my company name and including the symbol in the application, the name and symbol are included in that trademark?

Accepted Answer

Reply

Answer

Yes I think you are right, if you had to file them separately it would have said something to that effect at that line.

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