Possible trademark infringement for web developer

[webprogrammer56]

I am starting a web development business and I registered the domain name (and would like to do business as) "<adjective> Web Development", where <adjective> is a somewhat common adjective, like 'Simple'.

There is a similar active company that uses the domain name "<adjective> Web Design", but does not have a registered trademark. They operate in a different state than I do.

Finally, there is a company called "<adjective> Web" that does not do web design, but does have a registered trademark.

Am I infringing on either of these companies trademarks? Since I haven't started anything on this domain and haven't incorporated yet, is it better to just pick a different name? It's a decent domain name so I would like to use it if possible.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

It's impossible to make an conclusions based upon your example. The only thing I can say is that if it is a descriptive name, e.g. an adjective like "Best" Web Design as opposed to "Greatest" Web Design, then chances are greater that there won't be a trademark issue since you're using the English language descriptively. If the adjective was not descriptive but arbitrary, e.g. "Blueberry Web Design" v. "Blackberry Web Design" then you're starting to traverse along the lines of whether there is a serious likelihood of the public being confused as to who is who. This is because people don't associate the words with web design and thus those words, Blueberry and Blackberry, can take on a "special" meaning in this context, e.g. Apple Computers versus "Fast Processing Computers."

Next, the registered trademark might not be on the name itself but on the design, e.g. the logo. You need to research what the trademark is for before you can come to conclusions. Good luck to you and hope this helps as a basic guide.

 

[webprogrammer56]

Great. Thanks for the help. I'll look into it a little more.