Xerox seeks to block trademark application for Zerox apparel line

Xerox seeks to block trademark application for Zerox apparel line

Xerox has filed an opposition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to deny Twisted X Inc.’s application to register a “Zerox” mark on a footwear and apparel line.

In its opposition, the Norwalk company noted the trademark and service mark for Xerox dates back to 1948, with the name tied to a 1942 patent obtained by Chester Carlson for Electrophotography, which later became known as xerography.

Carlson’s patent was licensed to the Haloid Co. in 1947, which registered a trademark for Xerox-branded copiers in 1948; Haloid became Haloid Xerox in 1958 and renamed itself Xerox in 1961.

Twisted X filed a trademark application for Zerox in June. While the two companies are not in the same industry, Xerox insisted having another trademarked brand with a phonetically identical name would impact its longstanding identity.

See the Opposition here: ttabvue-91265851-OPP-1-OppositionXEROX against ZEROX

“The adoption and unauthorized use of a deceptively similar mark would undoubtedly result in the reduced ability of the public to identify the Opponent’s trademark ‘Xerox’ with its goods and services,” Xerox said in its filing. “Any use of the mark ‘Zerox’ violates the Opponent’s statutory and common law rights in the Opponent’s mark ‘Xerox’ and will result in dilution of the Opponent’s well-known stature.”

Twisted X did not publicly comment on Xerox’s filing.

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