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I'll go create my line of scooters and call it Google, see if their lawyers care about not being in the same trademark category.

The Vespa is an iconic and well known brand in Italy and worldwide. If Piaggio isn't litigating it, I wonder what their lawyers are even doing.



The standard generally is whether the trademark would cause confusion to or deceive consumers. Naming a company after an existing brand which is an invented word (being a corruption of googol) would fall under the latter, and intent matters too.

As to the former, trademark classes are one of the ways in which confusion is determined, but it’s not the only way for sure.

That said, if it’s a word borrowed from another language and there’s no intent to deceive, I imagine courts would allow it - see also Apple/Apple Corps, and the many companies called “Delta” not in the airline business.


And the ruling would be fine after how many years of paying lawyers to handle endless appeals?




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