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Say I have a company called Business, and I've been operating under the domain name greatbusiness.com for 2 years. The "tm" symbol is on our logo and elsewhere on our website.

Then someone else comes along and registers greatbusiness.co and files for trademark "Great Business" at the USPTO and was approved. His company name is Great Business Inc.

What are my options at this point to get the trademark back? I want to file for a trademark.

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Talk to a lawyer. "Back"? Who said you had it? (A lawyer may base a claim that you had). – littleadv Oct 4 '12 at 7:14

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Your options will cost money. What you can do depends on how much money you have to fight this and how important the mark is to you.

Your likelihood of success depends on the following factors among others:

  • How similar your business is to his. If you sell software and he sells toothbrushes, then you might not have a case.
  • How prominent your business is. If you have a lot of sales and sell to most states in the U.S. that helps your case. If you have a primarily local business and low sales, then that makes it a lot harder.
  • How distinctive the word is. If it is a word in the dictionary, then you are less likely to succeed. If it is a made-up word, then you have a better chance.

Your options are (in increasing order of cost):

  1. Negotiate with the other party. You could do this on your own, but having a lawyer will bring the other party to the table.
  2. Oppose the trademark in the USPTO. You would have been better off doing this before the other party got the trademark, but you can still do it. You will need a lawyer to do this, and the initial stages are not so expensive. Are you willing to spend $10,000 on this?
  3. File a lawsuit.
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