We write a lot here about the scope and strength of trademark rights and how that determination is often intertwined to making intelligent likelihood of confusion determinations.
Does “April Madness” fall within the NCAA’s scope of trademark rights for “March Madness“?
Likelihood of confusion? Is “March Madness” a famous mark deserving protection from dilution?
How about “Final 3”? Does that fall within the NCAA’s scope of trademark rights in “Final 4”?
These are some of the questions that will be answered in NCAA v. Kizzang LLC, filed by the NCAA in Indiana federal district court last week, a PDF of the complaint is here.
Yesterday we wrote about a 1929 decision determining that the letter “C” fell within the scope of rights of a trademark containing the letter “B”.
Now, the NCAA is asking for a mark containing the month “April” to fall within the scope of rights in a mark containing the month “March.”
Doesn’t this remind you a little bit of our prior discussions of Adidas and its “one stripe buffer” — enjoying protection of its three stripe design against two and four stripes?
Hat tip to Dan.