Ricardo, Richard Not Enough Alike to Block Magazine Trademark

Canadian culinary company Ricardo Media Inc. can’t block a trademark application for the “Richard Magazine” fashion and beauty website because consumers wouldn’t link the marks, an administrative tribunal said.

Ricardo Media tried to oppose the application based on its “Ricardo” word trademark. But even though the marks’ primary elements—first names—would vary by just two letters, the differences “significantly outweigh the similarities,” the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board said Aug. 21.

The precedential decision shows the limits on the doctrine of foreign equivalents, which can block registration of words if they’re mere translations of existing trademarks. The doctrine “should generally not ...