Can I use another company’s trademark to market a different but similar kind of product or service?

Using the same or a similar trademark for similar products or services may be likely to confuse consumers about the source of the products or services even if they are technically different kinds of products or services, so this kind of use may result in liability for trademark infringement. Likelihood of confusion may exist if similar trademarks are used to market similar products or services. For example, DOLE is currently being used as a trademark for pineapples, bananas and certain other fruits. Dragon fruit is not currently being marketed under the DOLE label. Nevertheless, choosing DOLE as a brand identifier for dragon fruit would not be a good idea because dragon fruit is similar to the kinds of products the Dole company sells, namely, fruit. Consumers would be likely to mistakenly believes that DOLE dragon fruit comes from the same company that sells DOLE pineapples and bananas.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.