Seattle online real estate giant Zillow doesn’t quite own trademark rights to the term “Zilla” — at least according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Zillow filed a complaint last month claiming that LoanZilla, a Bellevue-based mortgage brokerage, had infringed on its trademark for “Zillow.”
But after detailed analysis of each service and other companies that use the “-Zilla” suffix, the USPTO ruled against Zillow’s claim. Although regulators determined that Zillow and LoanZilla work in similar lines of business, it did not find enough evidence to prove that LoanZilla infringed on any trademarks owned by Zillow.
“While the parties’ services are commercially related and there is overlap between the parties’ customer classes and channels of trade, the parties’ marks are extremely different in overall commercial impression, and that difference is further emphasized by the number and nature of marks incorporating the -ZILLA suffix in use by third parties,” the ruling reads. “Accordingly, we find that [LoanZilla’s] mark is not likely to give rise to confusion, mistake or deception as to the source of [LoanZilla’s] services.”
LoanZilla first began using its name in May 2010. The company operates under Super T Financial, which has been around since 2006. In the case, it explained that the company name is a play on words from Godzilla, and noted several other tech-related trademarks that include “-zilla” like Mozilla, Bugzilla, Shopzilla, Filezilla and Eventzilla.
From the case:
“The evidence of record substantiates [Loanzilla’s] contention that the suffix -ZILLA suggests an association with the attributes of the monster Godzilla and that this suggestiveness likely affects the commercial impression that customers will receive from the mark. This suggestive meaning is absent from [Zillow’s] mark, and as a result the two marks create substantially different overall commercial impressions. Accordingly, the du Pont factor of the similarity or dissimilarity of the marks weighs against a finding of likelihood of confusion.”
Zillow argued that LoanZilla’s name would cause “confusion, mistake or deception,” but the USPTO said that was unlikely.
“We routinely protect our rights in our registered trademarks,” Zillow spokesperson Katie Curnutte told GeekWire.
We reached LoanZilla president Rick Trepus by telephone this morning, but he declined to comment on the issue.
