A Midtown financial adviser that establishes a reputation for quality advice under a particular brand name may find a similarly named business in New Jersey or Connecticut competing for client referrals. In both of these examples, a US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) federal trademark registration (filed prior to the brand’s rise in prominence), would have provided the New York entity with a legal priority that would have avoided rather than created a problem.

In New York, trademark registration requires special care to avoid likelihood-of-confusion issues in the state’s most crowded classes. International Class 025 (clothing, footwear, and headwear) is one of the most crowded at the USPTO and likelihood-of-confusion is applied strictly to marks which share phonetic, visual or conceptual similarity without regard to differences in appearance or style. A New York fashion brand whose name sounds the same as a registered mark in Class 025 will be refused for likelihood of confusion by the USPTO examining attorney even if the marks look very different on a logo. Phonetic analysis as part of the pre-filing search process is critical for New York fashion brands.

For New York financial services brands, Class 036 has similar difficulties with crowded terms in the financial industry. And for New York food and beverage brands, Class 043 requires detailed goods and services descriptions that draw distinctions between the nature of the service being provided. USTML’s New York trademark registration service handles all of these class-specific issues from clearance to registration certificate.