Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Illinois

Re: trademark infringement

in your example you use the descriptive term "hot jalapeno pepper"...if you are selling jalapeno pepper then you will not get trademark protection because the term is descriptive...if you are selling apples you cannot get trademark protection for "apples"...if your trademark is "hot jalapeno pepper" and you are selling computers then you may be able to get trademark protection because the term is not descriptive...so, if you sell computers under the term "hot jalapeno pepper" and another company wants to say this product has "hot jalapeno pepper" (referring now to computer parts) they may or may not be able to do so...for example, they could use "hot jajalpeno pepper" to say "our product is compatable with hot jalapeno pepper", but they could not give the impression that they produce or are affiliated with you. hope this helped, justin lampel

Re: trademark infringement

It all depends on the context in which you are trying to use that term. I can guarantee you that, unless your use of "hot jalapeno pepper" is the name of a band, line of clothing, etc., you will not be granted a trademark registeration for it in the first place. It is too generic. It would be like trying to trademark the work "chair" and then trying to file trademark infringement actions against everyone else's use of the word chair.

Now, let's say for the sake of argument, that you are going to use "hot jalapeno pepper" as the name of a band. The likelihood that someone will look at a food label and see "hot jalapeno pepper" as an ingredient and think your band is inside hopefully would be very low. Same way with the band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Therefore, someone can use the term "hot jalapeno pepper" in a generic sense, like on a food label, and not risk infringement of the band's trademark.

What are you contemplating using the term " hot jalapeno pepper" for anyway?

Good luck... DS