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Purchase trademark after bankruptcy

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Futurebusiness

Junior Member
Hi my friend and I are interested in starting a brew pub. We’ve had several great ideas for names but with the overstauration of the market, we keep determining that it’s all been done before. If a bar or restaurant goes bankrupt, is their trademark available for purchase and reuse As a bar again across America? Is there a database or listing of bars/restaurants that go bankrupt? Thank you.
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Hi my friend and I are interested in starting a brew pub. We’ve had several great ideas for names but with the overstauration of the market, we keep determining that it’s all been done before. If a bar or restaurant goes bankrupt, is their trademark available for purchase and reuse As a bar again across America? Is there a database or listing of bars/restaurants that go bankrupt? Thank you.
There is no reason to start a new thread on what is a closely related topic. https://forum.freeadvice.com/starting-operating-business-3/naming-my-llc-638669.html
 

quincy

Senior Member
Hi my friend and I are interested in starting a brew pub. We’ve had several great ideas for names but with the overstauration of the market, we keep determining that it’s all been done before. If a bar or restaurant goes bankrupt, is their trademark available for purchase and reuse As a bar again across America? Is there a database or listing of bars/restaurants that go bankrupt? Thank you.
What is the name of your state?

The bankruptcy of a company does not mean their trademark is available for use by another. Depending on the type of bankruptcy filed, the trademark can continue to be used by a company or the trademark could be one of the assets sold.

Federally registered trademarks can be found by doing a search of the USPTO's database: https://www.uspto.gov

https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-application-process/search-trademark-database

In the US, trademarks do not have to be registered for a holder of a mark to have rights in a name, however, so your trademark search cannot start and end with the USPTO. You must also search state registrations and do a more general search engine search of specific names you are looking at using that are not registered but are in use as a company/goods/services identifier.

It is important to note that even if a trademark search shows a mark as "dead" or "abandoned," trademark rights may still attach to the name (think "Edsel").

Many people hire a trademark search firm because the searches must be thorough and can be time-consuming.

One way to avoid infringing on another's rights to a name is to invent your own word to use as an identifier. This is what Google and Kodak and Adidas did. Or you can use a real word in an unexpected way - which is what Arrow shirts and Penguin books and Apple did.


(Didn't notice the previous thread, Zigner. Sorry.)
 
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