Q: What is the meaning of “a likelihood of confusion including the likelihood of association” in trademark law?
Also give some examples to better understand that situation.
A:
Likelihood of confusion means the marks are similar and the goods and or services related such that consumers would mistakenly believe they come from the same source.
An application will rejected if: (1) the mark is a generally known geographic location; (2) purchasers would be likely to think that the goods or services originate in the geographic place identified in the mark, i.e., purchasers would make a goods/place or services/place association. This is called association. These are two different notions. You should consult an attorney before you decide to file an application.
A:
So this is a good question and it's something that comes up all the time when talking about trademarks.
To build off Attorney Liang's answer here is an example.
Pretend you walked into a store one day and saw a denim jean jacket with the Nike swoosh on it.
Now even though Nike (at least to my knowledge) doesn't sell denim jean jackets its possible and likely that they honestly might sell denim jean jackets based off their current use of the Nike swoosh. So the USPTO would not allow you to register the Nike swoosh mark due to the likelihood of consumers being confused as to the source of origin of that product.
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