USPTO Rejects Kanye West's “Sunday Service” Mark

American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and fashion designer Kanye West launched a new clothing line named “Sunday Service” after converting into Christianity recently. He has organized Sunday Service for a while now at the Mountain Top wearing cotton t-shirts adorned with the words, “TRUST GOD”. It was launched in late April. USPTO rejected the application on the basis that the same trademark was in existence.

The purpose of affixing products or services with trademarks is to help consumers to easily distinguish the products/services of one company from those of other companies. Federal trademark law bars registration of a trademark that is so similar to an already-registered mark through consumers would be confused, mistaken, or deceived as to the commercial source of the goods and/or services of the parties.

The singer unveiled a range of garments with his latest performance, at Sunday Service at Coachella. “Trust God,” “Holy Spirit” and “Jesus Walks” are splashed across a range of cotton sportswear like sweatshirts and sweatpants, plus the very essential Sunday Service poncho. The goods were proffered at the Sunday Service performance itself from both labelled “Church Clothes.”

The rapper applied for registering the mark “Sunday Service” for clothes. The USPTO said that New York-based Jeff Jonas who is better known as DJ Escape was granted registration for “Sunday Service” back in 2015. This mark was connected with the arranging, organizing, conducting, and hosting social entertainment events, live music in a club or concert, disc jockey performances, musical and artistic performances, music tours, dance parties and night clubs.

The U.S. trademark system awards rights based on who is the first to use a mark and not who is the first to file a trademark application. In other words, being the first to file an application to does not necessarily guarantee priority to the applicant. The date of first use in the U.S. is the relevant factor.

According to trademark registration, Jonas started using the mark in September 2014 and seems to have been using it consistently since then. Sunday Service’ is refused because of a likelihood of confusion with Jonas mark.two of the key factors used for determining whether there is a likelihood of confusion and the similarities between the two marks and the relatedness of the goods. It was decided that though the products of both parties were different when there is a search process for “Sunday Service” mark, both of the names of parties and the images of their products are portrayed before the customers which created confusion. Therefore, the USPTO decided to refuse and reject the application of Kanye's mark.