Tom Brady, through his companies TBD TM, LLC and TB12, Inc., has filed a trademark opposition to stop the registration of B2 (logo design) for various apparel and clothing items. The B2 trademark application was filed on January 15, 2022 by Shundra Brown Freeman and a comparison of the designs is shown below.
What is a trademark opposition?
When a trademark application is filed with the USPTO, it gets assigned to an Examining Attorney who reviews the application to determine if it should be allowed to proceed to registration. If approved by the Examining Attorney, the next step of the process is a publication/opposition period, where third parties have a 30 day window to oppose the application if they feel they will be damaged by the issuance of the registration.
Attorneys for Tom Brady filed the opposition on April 17, 2023.
Grounds for opposition
Brady is the owner of a number of trademark registrations geared around his TB12 brand, with the earliest one dating back to October of 2008. Like the goods protected in the B2 application, Brady’s registrations cover a variety of apparel items, as well as entertainment services, online retail store services, athletic bags and more.
The B2 application was filed under an intent to use application and is not currently being used in commerce. Brady points out that his marks have priority because the his filing dates and first use dates both predate Brown’s filing date.
According to the opposition, Brown’s mark is “likely to cause confusion, to cause mistake, or to deceive consumers as to an affiliation, connection, or association between Opposer and Applicant, as to the origin, sponsorship, or approval of Applicant’s goods, with consequent injury to Opposer and the public.”
In other words, Brady believes that because the mark is “nearly identical” to his and the goods protected are identical and directly compete with the TB12 goods, the general public will think there is some type of association to Brady when coming across the B2 mark.
Brown has until 05/27/2023 to file a response to this trademark opposition. Failure to respond will lead to abandonment of the B2 trademark application.
