TTABlog Test: Is ANDRADE EL IDOLO Confusable With ANDRADE “CIEN” ALMAS For Professional Wrestlers?

I haven't been a fan of professional wrestling since Gorgeous George retired, so I ask you, my dear readers, whether the USPTO was right in refusing to register the mark ANDRADE EL IDOLO for professional wrestling entertainment services, on the ground of likely confusion with the registered mark ANDRADE "CIEN" ALMAS for overlapping services? The Examining Attorney argued that ANDRADE is the dominant part of both marks and "consumers could view ANDRADE EL IDOLO and ANDRADE ‘CIEN’ ALMAS as being two different nicknames for the same person named Andrade." How do you think this came out? In re Manuel Alfonso Andrade Oropeza, Serial No. 90780014 (October 11, 2023) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Christen M. English).

Applicant argued that the “66% difference” in the words comprising the marks precluded a likelihood of confusion. The Board, however, concluded that consumers are unlikely to focus on the ratio of shared terms in the marks, instead developing general impressions of the marks.

With respect to pronunciation, "consumers have a tendency to shorten marks. If consumers were to shorten both marks to ANDRADE, as is likely because ANDRADE is a personal name, the marks would be pronounced the same."

Applicant maintained that “[c]onsumers are sophisticated enough to realize that an individual can play a different character with a different stage name for different companies for the same services without any confusion.” The Board pointed out, however, that there was no evidence in the record regarding the purported sophistication of consumers of professional wrestling entertainment. 

The Board agreed with Examining Attorney Maureen Reed that consumers are likely to perceive ANDRADE in both marks as a name, and the terms “EL IDOLO” and “‘CIEN’ ALMAS” as adjectives describing a person named ANDRADE. "Accordingly, the word ANDRADE is likely to be impressed upon and remembered by consumers as a name and the first part of the marks."

Gorgeous George

The Board noted that applicant “openly wonders if the single word and name were JOHN or MIKE or MATT that the rejection never would have been issued, but because the name is ANDRADE such rejections were maintained.” The Board flung that argument aside: "We give no consideration to this speculative musing."

With respect to connotation and commercial impression, the Board acknowledged that there are some differences between the marks, since EL IDOLO in Applicant’s mark means “the idol” and CIEN ALMAS in the Cited Mark means “a hundred souls.” But, according to the Board, "consumers are likely to perceive these terms as merely modifying and subordinate to the personal name ANDRADE. The marks therefore are likely to engender similar general commercial impressions of a person named ANDRADE."

Finally, the Board pointed out once again that "[w]here, as here, the marks identify services that are in-part identical and legally identical, 'the degree of similarity necessary to support a conclusion of likely confusion declines.'" 

Finding that the marks, both conveying the commercial impression of a person named ANDRADE, are sufficiently similar to cause a likelihood of confusion, the Board affirmed the refusal. 

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TTABlogger comment: I don't think anyone would confuse Gorgeous George with Ugly George, if there had been a wrestler named Ugly George.

Text Copyright John L. Welch 2023.