Where to look for copyrighted names?
<p>We (me and my team) are working on a (software) project and are trying to pick a name
for the group/team.</p>
<p>We have settled on &quot;Watchdogs&quot; (due to the project's nature). However, there is some concern that the name might be copyrighted and might get us in trouble.
I'm aware of the game, however that's called &quot;Watch Dogs&quot; (two separate words).</p>
<p>Where should i start looking for this kind of thing? Like if a name is copyrighted and may get us in trouble or if it's fine to use?</p>

<p>Names cannot be copyrighted at all, in any country.</p>
<p>They can, however, be protected as trademarks.</p>
<p>The general idea is that if one uses a name to identify a product or service, or a creator of products or services, others cannot use the same or a similar name to identify their products or services in such a way that a reasonable person might be confused into thinking that the two came from the same source, or one was endorsed or approved by the other.</p>
<p>Trademarks are limited in scope to a particular country, A name that is protected in Canada, say, will not be protected in the US unless steps have been taken to protect it there.</p>
<p>In some countries a trademark must be officially registered to get any protection, In others, such as the United States, merely using the mark can give a degree of protection, although registration give more protection.</p>
<p>Each country maintains a trademark registry which can be searched for existing marks. There are search firms that will do such searches for a client, and also search for marks in use but not registered, for a fee.</p>
<p>Trademark protection is generally restricted by the type of product or service involved. An anti-virus program, say, called &quot;Guard dog&quot; would probably not interfere with a fantasy game called &quot;Guardog&quot;. A private security service of the same name would pretty surely not interfere.</p>
<p>The range of protection depends on how widely known the product is, but &quot;software related&quot; is a very wide area, and except for famous marks, a mark protected in connection with one area of software will not be protected in a very different area of software.</p>
<p>Names that a purely invented, such as Kodak, are more strongly protected than descriptive marks such as &quot;Best Pizza&quot;</p>
<p>Particularly famous names such as &quot;Microsoft&quot; get additional protection even outside their usual areas, so &quot;Microsoft Pizza&quot; might be a problem.</p>
<p>Logos and other graphic marks can also be protected as trademarks, but that is not what the question asked about.</p>
<p>The styling of a trademark, such as a particular font, choice of colors, and so on, can also be protected. This is called &quot;trade dress&quot;.</p>
<p>A disclaimer making it clear that a somewhat similar name is not related, and the is no affiliation can help avoid avoid an infringement suit. For example:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Pear brand kites are in no way associated with, sponsored or approved by the makers of Pear smartphones.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On this site we cannot give specific legal advise, so we cannot evaluate whether a specific proposed trademark would or would not infringe an existing mark.</p>
<p>It might be well to consult an attorney with trademark experiences before finally choosing a name and doing marketing under it.</p>

copyright trademark