Hypothetical: if a small coffee shop exists in one country with a particular name, and I want to open one in another country, unrelated, that has the same name, is that ok legally? I mean there must be loads of establishments with the same name like hairdressers and stuff...
@WelshPixie Broadly true, yes. In addition to what others have brought up about trademarks being registered within country, if you're not competing in the same region of even the same country they may be seen as a conflict. Generally, the entity that had it regionally first gets to keep it.
Unless, of course, it's McDonald's.
@WelshPixie er, may *not* be seen
@WelshPixie @naga Some things can't be trademarked at all, rules for that vary from country to country. For instance, there's a gym in my area named "Lift!"
They can trademark their specific degisn (yellow with red and the font they use) so people can't use the same LOGO. But they can't trademark the word "lift".
@jessmahler @WelshPixie Yeah. One-word trademarks are rare (#cockygate notwithstanding)--the core issue in US law, at least, is whether the two businesses can be confused with each other. So a gym named "Lift!" and a plastic surgeon named "Lift!" couldn't be confused, especially with different fonts and colors.
@naga gotcha 😁 thank you!