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Author Topic: Generic name issue  (Read 543 times)
Mr. Nightlife
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« on: 11-18-09 at 09:26 pm »

I own a pretty high traffic nightlife website that is very successful in northern NJ.  Recently I changed the name of the site to remove geographical limitations that were in the name.  Six months later I get a letter from someone in southern NJ that says I am infringing on their name.  However they are not the same name and are rather a grouping of names.  Here is an example.
Lets say I changed my site to nightclubnetwork.com my logo and all marketing material say nothing but nightclubnetwork.com I never under any circumstance seperat the name.

This other person has a little magazine that he publishes called "the night club network page" he operates in a simliar area doing similar business (his company name is "the night club network page".  The primary difference is that I am more national and I am an online social network.  He has a website (lets say thenightclubnetworkpage.com) but is primarily a small print/circulation publication.  Does he have a leg to stand on?  Also, he has a grouping of generic names too which I am not copying exactly.  I don't even have "the" and "page" in my name. 

What do you guys think? 
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JSonnabend
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« Reply #1 on: 11-19-09 at 08:25 am »

The test for infringement is likelihood of confusion.  The more similar the marks, and the more similar the goods and/or services covered by each, the greater the likelihood of confusion.

- Jeff
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SonnabendLaw
Intellectual Property and Technology Law
Brooklyn, USA
718-832-8810
JSonnabend@SonnabendLaw.com
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