Dear Rich: Does a trademark registration grant the right to use a trademark only for the specific goods or for any/all goods within the category? For example, does a registration in Class 9 for an app give the trademark owner exclusive rights for everything in Class 9? No, registration in a a trademark class doesn't guarantee exclusive rights for all the goods and services in that class. For example, we counted over a dozen different companies who had registered the mark "EAGLE" in Class 9 for products ranging from fatigue monitoring devices to business software for inventory management. The principal issue for a trademark examiner is whether consumers are likely to be confused between the two similar marks. As the USPTO advises examiners, "[I]f the goods or services in question are not related or marketed in such a way that they would be encountered by the same persons in situations that would create the incorrect assumption that they originate from…
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