Trademark Woes
We had a very relevant and favorable name for our startup. We've purchased the domain name, built the technology, worked on design and marketing/messaging, and purchased business cards. Only months later after all that work and talking to customers and mentors to develop our product did we start the process to trademark our name. We're fortunate to have access to a trademark attorney, who told us that our name has a big chance conflicting with another trademark recently granted which lists what seems like every internet software good and service under the sun, only a few letters off but pronounced very similarly. Overall, we're fortunate to not have incorporated yet, but I think it's more the attachment to the name and the time spent developing our messaging that's got us down.
After getting over the initial stage of feeling bummed we have to abandon that relevant name, we spent a week brainstorming new names that sounded unique, domain was available, and a uspto.gov search turned up no concerning results. We narrowed it down to a few favorites, and decided on our favorite one. We were so excited around this new name, started brainstorming how we could leverage a play on the name for marketing, design, and focusing the company around a cool character mascot we began sketching. Spoke to the trademark attorney today and he found another trademark with goods and services described as a desktop CMS application and selling prerecorded video/audio recordings for lessons in marketing. At first we said no, that's so different from what we're doing! But then he showed us a similar application for a different spelling of the name we wanted, along with the letter for rejection by the trademark office, which explained:
The goods and/or services of the parties need not be identical or directly competitive to find a likelihood of confusion. Rather, they need only be related in some manner, or the conditions surrounding their marketing are such that they would be encountered by the same purchasers under circumstances that would give rise to the mistaken belief that the goods and/or services come from a common source.
Now we're back to square one. We're thinking for this round we need to brainstorm names that are obscure, possibly in a different language, or a word that means nothing at all.
Does anyone have any similar stories or advice to share? Going through this frustrating process, I'm surprised any startup is able to choose any name with common words in them. Do many companies just go with a name once they secure the domain and hope for the best?
Thanks for any feedback.