Earlier this week, I stumbled across this filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It is a notice of Trademark infringement alleged by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) and its component boards against James Dunning, concerning the use of the term, Osteopractor™, which has been commented on before at this blog.
In the filing, the AOA states:
Applicant’s mark so resembles Opposer’s previously used and
registered marks as set forth above as to be likely, when applied
to the services set forth in Applicant’s application, to cause
confusion, mistake, or deception or to comply that Applicant was
certified or approved by Opposer within the meaning of Section
2(d) of the Trademark Act.
There is, of course, a retort from the accused stating that they disagree. This will be interesting to watch as this debate unfolds.
On a somewhat related note, I find the architecture of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to be quite nice.