McDonald's Corp. v. McSweet, LLC

Trademark registration can be viewed as a crucial step towards the market success. This article presents a closer look into the role of trademark registration in the success stories of Jacuzzi, Ping-Pong and Zamboni, for which the trademark has become more renown than the very product these brands describe.

One of the most common reasons for trademark disputes has to do with the perceived similarity between existing trademarks. The two trademarks are considered “similar” if they share common characteristics connected to their appearance, sound, meaning and commercial impression, and if they are used for related goods or services. This is seen as a problem from brand perspective because the consumers might believe that the owners of the two trademarks are related, affiliated, connected, or that the goods or services originate from the same source.

We have looked into the last 1,000 trademarks registered in main intellectual property offices, including USPTO (United States), UKIPO (United Kingdom), EUIPO (European Union), CNIPA (China), CIPO (Canada), ROSPATENT (Russia), IPA (Australia), BOIP (Benelux), IGE-IPI (Switzerland), NIPO (Norway) and KIPO (Republic of Korea), exploring the average time it takes for a trademark to be registered in the selected jurisdictions.