Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

1.My question is does a name like Yap which I find generic and common deserving of a narrow scope of protection.

2.Or is it that it can only to be deserving of a narrow scope of protection when the mark Yap and the good and services and trades are similar or the same to just one other mark .. included would there be more of a reason for narrow scope of protection because Yap is a generic common word.

3.Or is it when to many marks are the same and are in the same or similar line of trade and good and services, fall under a narrow scope of protection?


Asked on 5/19/12, 11:44 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Nancy Delain Delain Law Office, PLLC

The lawyerly answer to your question is "it depends."

If you use YAP as a mark for, say, a new drug, with which the word has absolutely nothing to do, then YAP could be a good, solid "arbitrary" mark. If, though, you use it as a mark for a dog kennel, that scope of protection would be merely descriptive, and the protection, if available, would be thin.

Think of it this way. "Apple" is a generic word when it comes to describing a substantially spherical fruit that grows on trees and has the reputation for keeping the doctor away if you eat one every day. When used for a collection of microchips, RAM, ROM, and circuits encased in a box with a screen attached somehow, the word becomes much less generic; APPLE is a strong "arbitrary" mark for computers.

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Answered on 5/20/12, 5:55 pm


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