Legal Question in Technology Law in Connecticut

Site name TM infringement?
I have been running a simple community website for the past 2 years. A few days ago I received an email that was very vague but threatened to have my site taken down for trademark infringement.

The site in question is in currently legal proceedings that has put their request for a trademark on hold.

My site does not have the same name as the trademark that has been applied for. Also their site is a global site while mine is for just my state.

My site name is somewhat similar as we do basically the same thing, I guess similar as Wal-Mart and K-Mart, except my site is very small and non-commercial.

I pay the small yearly fee myself because it helps my community and I feel good about doing it.

I don't want to change the name because the community worked hard on designing logos for the site to make it ours.

I should also add that the person who ''owns'' the other site who send me the C&D email has used various bullying tactics on others and that I used to volunteer for him myself before I realized how unreasonable and dishonest he was. I decided that I did not want to stop the good work in my community in the groups that I built but decided to not pursue a larger venue.

Asked on 8/08/07, 8:06 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

Francis Pennarola Chipman, Mazzucco, Land & Pennarola

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Re: Site name TM infringement?

One of the tests in trademark cases, which invlove primarily federal law, is whether there is a likelyhood of confusion. Would someone looking for the global site, come across yours and

think there was a connection? Are you trying to capitalize off the name of the other site? would consmers be confused? How close are the names? How strong is the trademark infavor of theother user? These are all questions to be concidered. Unfortunately, you can spend thousands of dollars defending yourself. It may be time to consider a relaunch and a new name.

Answered on 8/08/07, 8:27 am

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