Ask IH: Trademark advice needed
Hello Hackers,
I'm working on a mobile app (organizer for personal finances) and going to publish its beta version. Today I found that another company started to use the same name as my project in fintech area, just accidentally bumped to theirs website (my domain is older). When I started couple years ago the name was not used by anyone, and there are still no registered trademarks as I see.
I think registering a trademark would be the best option, however I have a tight budget and the beta app can't be delayed.
Did you have similar cases and how you resolved them?
IANAL.
And I'm definitely no expert on the Russian IP legal system.
You know who is? A Russian lawyer specialising in IP. Might be worth asking one of them for some advice :)
That said, I have filed a few European/US Trademark applications, so I have a rough idea of how they work.
The bad news is that your trademark application (for the name itself, you could also trademark the logo, colours etc) shouldn't be granted, because another company is using the same name in the same category. If they do grant it, it's pretty easy for the other company to get an exception (by proving that they were using the name before you filed the application).
The good news is that no-one can stop you from continuing to use the name :)
This is all assuming that Russian trademarks work the same way as the EU/US