Multi-part TM Question

[stscac]

Heres my deal -

I am a US resident and am eyeing a domain name, which is also the proposed name of my company.

The name is not a dictionary word, but more of a made up word, that flows nicely. It alone receives 11,000 results in google in another language.

I run into two warning flags and need opinions

1. There is a company using this word as their company name in another country. This is in the same country the results appear from in google

2. There is another company using this word + "soft" where the name I would be looking at would be the "micro" in microsoft. This company is in the same sector as mine would be - except my company serves as a corporate overhang whereas their site interacts directly with the customer. My corporate overhang would not interact with customers, but oversee sub companies.

Should I Continue looking at the domain name? I have had my eye on this for a while, and it is almost time to start negotiations if I am going through with this offer.

Thanks for the advice and help in advance

-Steve

 

[Dave_Z]

1. There is a company using this word as their company name in another country. This is in the same country the results appear from in google

Although I'm not an attorney, let's see if this will help.

While trademarks ideally arise from usage, see if you can find if they have a
registered trademark using their local database. Or if you search for the term
in google, are they listed anywhere in the first two pages of results?

2. There is another company using this word + "soft" where the name I would be looking at would be the "micro" in microsoft. This company is in the same sector as mine would be - except my company serves as a corporate overhang whereas their site interacts directly with the customer. My corporate overhang would not interact with customers, but oversee sub companies.

One potential problem with this is "first use". If they're especially established
in the industry they're marketing, I'd imagine it might be hard to convince
people you're this and not them.

It's all in all a tough call.

 

[labrocca]

Seek more professional counsel...that's my advice.

 

[primacomputer]

If the name is so unique then it would likely cause confusion if you were to use the “non-soft” version of it in the same business sector as the company using the “soft” version. If this company is also in the US or does business with the US it would probably be best to steer clear of this name. If not you should be fine since you have a legitimate use for it.

 

[jberryhill]

I am a US resident and am eyeing a domain name, which is also the proposed name of my company.

It's interesting how these kinds of everyday trademark questions tend to get morphed into "domain" questions, when posted here. Let's say that you weren't eyeing a domain name, but you did have a company name with which you wanted to move forward and do business. You'd still have a trademark question, and one which is best not asked nor answered on a bulletin board of random opinions, based on some sort of charade-like "it's two syllables, and the second syllable sounds like..." description.

Should I

...make a decision on the basis of a couple of cartoon character's responses to a fact-free question, when that decision could have consequences running into tens of thousands of dollars of potential problems?

Uh, no, you shouldn't.

 

[labrocca]

Nice Jberryhill. I didn't want to tell him yes or no myself but it did appear to be a no-no.