Answer
Can I use a name that's already trademarked?
Lawyers call this: likelihood of confusion · nominative fair use · 15 U.S.C. §§ 1114, 1125
Short answer
Sometimes. It turns on how you use the name and what you sell, not on whether the name is registered. Using someone else’s mark as your own brand for related goods is the problem: if buyers would likely think your business is connected to theirs, that is infringement. The same word on an unrelated product can be lawful, and naming another company’s product to refer to it truthfully usually is.
Famous marks are the exception to the unrelated-product rule. A mark like that can be protected even on goods its owner never sells.
What changes the answer
- Whether the name is your brand or a reference to theirs
- “Case for iPhone” tells buyers what the case fits. “iPhone Cases Co.” tells them who made it. The first can be a fair reference. The second borrows the brand.
- How close your goods are to theirs
- The same word on clothing and on industrial pumps may never collide. The same word on two brands of coffee is likely to. Similar names follow the same logic — the closer the products, the less similarity it takes.
- How well known their mark is
- A household name gets broader protection. Federal dilution law lets the owner of a famous mark stop uses that blur or tarnish it, even with no confusion and no competition.
- Whether you are using it inside a creative work
- A book, song or film that mentions a brand is treated differently from a product sold under that brand. That protection shrinks when the mark becomes the name on your own product.
- Who used it first, and where
- Rights come from use, not only registration. An unregistered local business can hold rights a federal search will not show.
The rule
Infringement is a court question. Federal law reaches registered marks, 15 U.S.C. § 1114(1), and unregistered ones, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a). Both ask whether your use is likely to cause confusion about who makes or sponsors the goods. Registration is a separate USPTO question under 15 U.S.C. § 1052(d), and a registration does not by itself make your use lawful.
Truthful reference is allowed in some form everywhere. Courts call it nominative fair use: you may use another’s mark to name their product when you need it to identify the product, you use only as much as you need, and you do nothing to suggest sponsorship. New Kids on the Block v. News Am. Publ’g, Inc., 971 F.2d 302 (9th Cir. 1992). The circuits frame the test differently. The dilution statute excludes fair use, including nominative use, when the mark is not used as a source identifier for your own goods. 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c)(3)(A).
For creative works, many courts have applied Rogers v. Grimaldi, 875 F.2d 994 (2d Cir. 1989), which protects artistic uses unless they have no artistic relevance or explicitly mislead. In Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC, 599 U.S. 140 (2023), the Supreme Court held that Rogers does not apply when the mark is used as a designation of source for the user’s own goods. A parody dog toy branded with a play on the whiskey’s marks got the ordinary confusion analysis. The Court did not decide whether Rogers is ever appropriate.
Go deeper
The guide explains how relatedness and similarity are weighed, factor by factor, in the USPTO’s version of the test.
What to do next
If you only need to name another company’s product — to say what your part fits, what you repair, or what you compare against — use the words, not their logo or styling, and say nothing that suggests they endorse you. That is usually something you can handle yourself.
If you want the name, or something close to it, as your own brand, search first and look at what the other owner actually sells. The same goes for a book, podcast or product line whose title leans on a known brand.
A reference to another brand is rarely where a lawyer earns the fee. Building your own brand next to someone else’s, a parody product, or a demand letter already in hand is.
If you want to use a name close to an existing mark, Valet Law, PLLC can review the other mark, its owner’s goods and your plans, and tell you where the risk sits.
Attorney review is provided by Valet Law, PLLC, a law firm separate from Trademark Valet, LLC. Keep confidential facts out of public tools. Your first message to Valet Law should identify the parties and the general issue only. Wait until Valet Law confirms it can discuss the matter before sending confidential details.
Who checked this
Reviewed and approved by Brandon Leavitt on 2026-10-02.
General information about how trademark law works. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not make anyone your lawyer.