Category Archives: Clearance

Oregon Trademark Database

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The State of Oregon has made publicly available a list of active Oregon state trademark registrations. Unfortunately, the list doesn’t have descriptions of goods and services, a key element in any trademark rights analysis.

The processing fee for an Oregon state trademark is $50. Although an Oregon trademark doesn’t confer all the benefits of federal registration, it does have some benefits over a common-law trademark, including trademark rights extended to the entire state without having to prove the geographical reach of your trademark use and triple damages of defendant’s profits as well as attorney’s fees.

A Cautionary Tale

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A credit union in Billings, Montana was forced to change its name of Avanta Federal Credit Union to Altana Federal Union.  When choosing its name, the credit union only checked with the state of Montana and the National Credit Union Association, but failed to obtain an opinion from a trademark attorney regarding the availability of the name.  As a consequence, the credit union must spend about $80,000 to change all its stationary and signs after Advanta Bank in Utah objected to the similarly sounding and spelled mark.

The Gazette article notes that Avanta and Advanta are “neological” names.  While it’s true that coined or fanciful marks can be good choices for trademarks, both of these appear to be closely derivative of the word ‘advantage’.  Chances are if you’ve thought of a form of ‘advantage’, so has someone else, which increases the chances that your new brand may be infringing a prior trademark use. Originally published June 19, 2009.

Update: unfortunately, Advanta’s efforts to protect its brand couldn’t prevent it from going on the FDIC’s failed bank list.