Q: I want to trademark "Trill Apparel" but "TRILL APPAREL CLOTHING COMPANY" is taken.
Our company also does clothing but we would trademark it as "Trill Apparel" and not "Trill Apparel Clothing Company". Would we be able to do this?
A: Because of the substantially similar nature of your proposed mark to that already registered mark, your application would very likely be rejected by the USPTO for "likelihood of confusion." When making their decision, the Examining Attorney examines the proposed mark as a whole, and places emphasis on the first word or two in a mark when comparing it with existing marks. If you are trying to register in an international class for Clothing/apparel, then you would indeed be in the same stream of commerce as the existing registrant and the examining attorney will most likely deem that there is no difference between your proposed mark and the existing registration. I would advise choosing a new mark and not waste your time or money on this proposed mark.
Bryan R. Bagdady agrees with this answer
A: I agree with my colleague, Mr. Brooks. In my experience, your request is dead on arrival. If there is a likelihood of confusion, your application will be rejected. - Bryan.
A:
It looks like you did not conduct enough research. I went to the trademark government site at USPTO.gov and searched Trill Apparel. This trademark was abandoned in 2005. See link:
http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4806:oxwr4i.7.1
This means that you have good chance of registering this trademark. However, we don't know why
it was abandoned. There are many trademarks that begin with Trill. Perhaps they were
challenged by the trademark office, that the Trill Apparel mark was too close to another's mark.
On surface, I don't see any similarities, dealing with the clothing business.
Here is what I would do, if I were you and I wanted to register this mark. Go to USPTO.gov and read all of the correspondence associated with this mark from 2005. The correspondence may tell you why they abandoned the mark. There could many reasons why a mark was abandoned, including the company going out of business.
Once you understand why the mark was abandoned, make a management decision to apply for
the national trademark. Good luck.
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