Electronik
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California
Hello and thanks in advance for helping a starving artist. I have some questions and I will use a fictitious band name "Elektronik Produce" as an example for my questions.
1. The first word is misspelled on purpose and the second word is rather generic. USPTO search yields no results for the combined word "Elektronik Produce", however Elektronik alone yields many results also including other words. "Electronic Produce" spelled correctly yields many results, but not the combined 2 words by itself or in exact order e.g. "Cool Electronic Produce" and "Produce Electronic". Will I be able to register the name?
2. Another person out there goes by the name "Elektronik Produce". We are a band that performs and also produces music. The other person, it appears, only produces music. Although we were first they appear to have a larger google search footprint with the top 2 search results by working with a somewhat known named artist. Albums released with the their name as producer credits appear to be mixtapes (available for free) and not online retail with major companies. Results for the other guy go as far back as 2014. We are most likely first to use the name having performed some songs in 2005 and establishing social media identity and content for streaming since 2006. Will this be a problem?
Here are MAYBE some good things we have going for us:
- Domain name www.elektronikproduce.com since 2010-2011
- One album with the band name "Elektronik Produce" registered with copyright.gov filed in 2011, however the songs were made in 2005. Current search results yield no other copyrights registered under the name Elektronik Produce.
- YouTube music video with our name on the video uploaded September of 2007
- Although we've been distributing music and providing services for years, we finally have songs for sale through major online retailers including iTunes this week.
- YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and most known social media sites have been secured with custom url /elektronikproduce attached e.g. "www.youtube.com/elektronikproduce"
3. If I am able to register, at minimum what goods and classes should I cover? What would be acceptable specimens to submit for Section1(a) considering we do not have a physical cd to sell other than sharpied burned discs and online music content available for stream and download? To be clear, we have not made money yet. Would Section1(b) be a better plan? I would just like to get the ball rolling for peace of mind and with minimal chance of rejection. Most of what we do are under class 041 and 009 since we perform music, record mix & master music, distribute free music and recently starting to sell. At minimum I'd like to protect the band name.
I have about $700 to invest for trademarking. Anyways, I appreciate all the help. I know it will be hard to cover everything and there's probably all sorts of things going against me without having a paid lawyer to handle it all. Just looking at what I got ahead of me and possible solutions.
Hello and thanks in advance for helping a starving artist. I have some questions and I will use a fictitious band name "Elektronik Produce" as an example for my questions.
1. The first word is misspelled on purpose and the second word is rather generic. USPTO search yields no results for the combined word "Elektronik Produce", however Elektronik alone yields many results also including other words. "Electronic Produce" spelled correctly yields many results, but not the combined 2 words by itself or in exact order e.g. "Cool Electronic Produce" and "Produce Electronic". Will I be able to register the name?
2. Another person out there goes by the name "Elektronik Produce". We are a band that performs and also produces music. The other person, it appears, only produces music. Although we were first they appear to have a larger google search footprint with the top 2 search results by working with a somewhat known named artist. Albums released with the their name as producer credits appear to be mixtapes (available for free) and not online retail with major companies. Results for the other guy go as far back as 2014. We are most likely first to use the name having performed some songs in 2005 and establishing social media identity and content for streaming since 2006. Will this be a problem?
Here are MAYBE some good things we have going for us:
- Domain name www.elektronikproduce.com since 2010-2011
- One album with the band name "Elektronik Produce" registered with copyright.gov filed in 2011, however the songs were made in 2005. Current search results yield no other copyrights registered under the name Elektronik Produce.
- YouTube music video with our name on the video uploaded September of 2007
- Although we've been distributing music and providing services for years, we finally have songs for sale through major online retailers including iTunes this week.
- YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and most known social media sites have been secured with custom url /elektronikproduce attached e.g. "www.youtube.com/elektronikproduce"
3. If I am able to register, at minimum what goods and classes should I cover? What would be acceptable specimens to submit for Section1(a) considering we do not have a physical cd to sell other than sharpied burned discs and online music content available for stream and download? To be clear, we have not made money yet. Would Section1(b) be a better plan? I would just like to get the ball rolling for peace of mind and with minimal chance of rejection. Most of what we do are under class 041 and 009 since we perform music, record mix & master music, distribute free music and recently starting to sell. At minimum I'd like to protect the band name.
I have about $700 to invest for trademarking. Anyways, I appreciate all the help. I know it will be hard to cover everything and there's probably all sorts of things going against me without having a paid lawyer to handle it all. Just looking at what I got ahead of me and possible solutions.