Startups Stack Exchange Archive

how to identify trademark violation?

I feel my brand is being violated. Is there any way to identify the violators, take appropriate action and monitor my brand to protect against future infringement before they occur.

Answer 8835

How do you ‘feel’ your brand is being violated? Is some entity implying they have a commercial relationship with you/your business? Are they using your logo? Your Company name? A product name?

Is your brand protected via a trademark? Remember laws differ from one country to the next, so a trademark in one country might not prove valid in another.

You do not need to have a trademark but having one helps. A court must decide if the brand violation is visible to the general public and if there is a relationship that would lead to misrepresentation - your opinion might prove enough to make a case, but your opinion alone is unlikely to prove sufficient to win.

Examples I can cite was Visa and Ever Ready. Visa is well known for it’s credit cards, yet someone argued that they had a right to create Visa Condoms (since a visa was a permit for entry so the arguement went). The courts supported in favour of the credit card company and against the condom company as the court felt that few would see the relationship that the condom company based their arguement on. Ever Ready had a similar suit and strangely - I might not be correct in my recollection but Ever Ready Batteries and Ever Ready condoms, and I believe the condom company argued their win successfully (I might be wrong - it was years ago).

My point being is that brand violation that might be valid in your eyes, may be less valid in the courts eyes. Its possible that the courts could say your brand is less well known and thus not have the courts protection.

You can pay others to search/monitor for brand abuse - nobody will do it for you voluntary.

If your brand violation relates to a similar website domain name, the address of the website behind the domain name can be found via an online search for “WHOIS” database (use your favorite search engine).

I should add that if you don’t get your answer here, then I suggest you raise the question in the ‘law’ stackexchange area https://law.stackexchange.com/


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