Can your email name be a trademark infringement?

Question

If your email address is [e-mail], and then next year, a company called Hyper-product opens up, can they do anything legally to make you sell or change your email name?

Answer 1

You have no trademark rights in a name that is not being used to identify the source of goods or services currently in the marketplace. If a company used that mark as its name and used it to identify itself as the source of its goods or services, then it would obtain rights in the name (assuming that no one else is already using the name, in which case things would get pretty complicated for them.) The company would have the right to stop anyone else from using the name in any way that might cause confusion among the company's potential customers. If you used your email address in any way that might cause confusion about whether you are associated with the company, then you would arguably be infringing their trademark, you could be ordered by a court to stop, and you could be subjected to fines if you failed to do so. Your use of the mark in the email name prior to the company's use of it in the trademark does not matter, because you did not use the mark as a trademark.

Answer 2

Are you using that name for a specific service or product?

Determining if marks infringe can be tricky and each situation varies from another.

The general rules to keep in mind are:

1) Are the names similar in Sound, Appearance or Meaning?

2) Are the industries the same or similar to one another?

3) Are the names confusingly similar to the average consumer? In other words, could customers be confused and assume that both companies are affiliated?

Here's what the USPTO has to say about this matter:

"The principal factors considered by the examining attorney in determining whether there would be a likelihood of confusion are:

the similarity of the marks; and
the commercial relationship between the goods and/or services listed in the application.

To find a conflict, the marks do not have to be identical, and the goods and/or services do not have to be the same. It may be enough that the marks are similar and the goods and/or services related."

It's best to contact a private search company or a trademark attorney to assist you in determining if this will be a problem or not.

Hope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!

Answer 3

I would not think so, especially if you had the name before trade-mark filed