- Original Poster
- #1
I've recently filed a trademark myself and tried to do a search of similar marks, which I didn't find any.
Got an email this morning from the IPO saying "I have searched the relevant trade mark registers and found earlier trade mark that I think you should be aware of."
I'll not post the real trademarks here as it'll come up in search, but a very near exaple is:
Radiant Guitars < my filed mark
Radiance < their existing mark
both in the class 15, musical instruments. (The sub-class of their mark is "muscial instruments"; so very broad).
They are not a well-known brand and supply very, very niche instruments (not guitars), but I can see why the examiner flagged it.
After doing some research it seems like the best approach might be to limit the sub-classes of my filing to "stringed instruments" only, hoping it makes them less interested in opposing and continue with the filing.
My understanding is that if they skipped trying to contact me first and went straight to filing a formal opposition, they would have no recourse to recover fees, so there's no financial implication of "trying to file and see what happens". Did I understand that correctly?
If they do intend to formally oppose I'd probably just withdraw the mark. This is a hobby business for now and it's not worth thousands in legal fees.
Got an email this morning from the IPO saying "I have searched the relevant trade mark registers and found earlier trade mark that I think you should be aware of."
I'll not post the real trademarks here as it'll come up in search, but a very near exaple is:
Radiant Guitars < my filed mark
Radiance < their existing mark
both in the class 15, musical instruments. (The sub-class of their mark is "muscial instruments"; so very broad).
They are not a well-known brand and supply very, very niche instruments (not guitars), but I can see why the examiner flagged it.
After doing some research it seems like the best approach might be to limit the sub-classes of my filing to "stringed instruments" only, hoping it makes them less interested in opposing and continue with the filing.
My understanding is that if they skipped trying to contact me first and went straight to filing a formal opposition, they would have no recourse to recover fees, so there's no financial implication of "trying to file and see what happens". Did I understand that correctly?
If they do intend to formally oppose I'd probably just withdraw the mark. This is a hobby business for now and it's not worth thousands in legal fees.
