Trademark Section 2(d) Refusal: Likelihood of Confusion

Question

I'm having some trouble with a Section 2(d) Refusal: Likelihood of Confusion for a self-filed trademark in two classes. The fictional example below closely and accurately replicates the situation:

Trademark filed as "text": Sunset Bike Company

This was denied because "Bike" and "Company" are general terms for the specific Classes filed under, and because of cited conflicts that cause confusion with:

• Sunset Home
• Sunset Ski & Bike Company
• Sunset Ski

Can the use of capitalization and combined words/characters help us avoid this confusion? Possibilities could include:

• "SunsetBike"
• "SUNSETbike"
• "S U N S E T B I K E"

Answer 1

Generally no - playing with the font and or spelling will not be enough to overcome rejection of a trade mark registration for confusion.

Hire a trade mark lawyer.