Hello panagiota-ga,
I could not find an existing or pending trademark for "Pancake
Heaven". The United States Patent and Trademark Office maintains a
database called the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS). From
their webpage they state, "TESS contains more than 3 million pending,
registered and dead federal trademarks." The most up to date listings
are from the status page linked below:
"
Last complete paper filing date: 4 March 2004* loaded 03/24/2004.
Last complete electronic filing date (e-TEAS): 2 March 2004* loaded 03/23/2004.
"
This means that their database is only good up until applications
filed or pending as of around March 2nd. By searching their database
for Pancake AND Heaven (using their boolean search) I could not find
any trademarks which exist, nor any trademarks which are applications
pending review. This does not mean that there are no trademarks
currently pending which were filed after March 2nd perhaps, but it is
looking good should you want to register this trademark yourself.
Please be aware, that on another page, a disclaimer states:
"
The fact that a mark is not present in the TARR database does not
necessarily mean that the mark is not currently being used as a
trademark. The TARR database contains only those trademarks that are
Federally registered or that are pending (applications undergoing
examination at the USPTO). The TARR database does not contain any
information on state, foreign, or common law trademarks.
"
and
"
WARNING: AFTER SEARCHING THE USPTO DATABASE, EVEN IF YOU THINK THE
RESULTS ARE "O.K.," DO NOT ASSUME THAT YOUR MARK CAN BE REGISTERED AT
THE USPTO. AFTER YOU FILE AN APPLICATION, THE USPTO MUST DO ITS OWN
SEARCH AND OTHER REVIEW, AND MIGHT REFUSE TO REGISTER YOUR MARK.
"
That being said, I almost must caution you that trademarks are a
tricky business. It is suggested if you are looking to register
"Pancake Heaven", that you find a lawyer comfortable and verse in
trademark law, and familiar in the procedures of filing a new
trademark. While there may not be a "Pancake Heaven" somebody with the
trademark "Pancake Hell" or even "Pancake Delight" could possibly try
to claim financial damages for trademark confusion or brand dilution.
If you are considering filing a new trademark, I found a good article
on "The Trademark Blog" which lists some pointers of why you should
hire a lawyer to help file a new trademark, and list the fees you
should expect to pay (between $300 and $600). Please see the link
below for the full article.
Search Strategy:
pancake AND heaven on TESS on USPTO:
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=hfkfjs.1.1&p_search=searchstr&Search+History=&p_L=100&p_plural=no&p_s_PARA1=pancake&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA1%24ALL&expr=PARA1+and+PARA2&p_s_PARA2=heaven&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA2%24ALL&a_default=search&a_search=Submit+Query
Additional Links:
United States Patent and Trademark Office:
http://www.uspto.gov/
Dates of last filings of TESS:
http://tess2.uspto.gov/webaka/html/news.htm
"The Trademark Blog" article on Trademark Lawyers:
http://trademark.blog.us/blog/2002/12/03.html
List of Trademark Application Fees:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/qs/ope/fee2004jan01.htm#tm
Thank you for the opportunity to answer your question, if you require
more information, please clarify the question, or if you find this
answer satisfactory, please feel free to rate it. Thank you!
skermit-ga |
