Sorry, Boys and Girls, This Fruit is Taken

 By 
Stan Schroeder
 on 
Sorry, Boys and Girls, This Fruit is Taken
Mashable Image
Credit:

It's hard to imagine that anyone will ever confuse Victoria School of Business and Technology in Canada with the company that makes iThings. One could say that this is just how intellectual property laws are set up at the moment (in short: if you don't sue, your trademark is devalued), but I'm not really sure about it. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the criteria for the possibility of confusion between two trademarks, in order of importance (this is just one example, US courts can set up their own criteria):

# Strength of the mark

# Proximity of the goods

# Similarity of the marks

# Evidence of actual confusion

# Marketing channels used

# Type of goods and the degree of care likely to be exercised by the purchaser

# Defendant's intent in selecting the mark

# Likelihood of expansion of the product lines

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