Listing with similar name - trademarking your listing name

Hi Guys,
I host a studio room on Aribnb and recently had a message from another host in the area that read -

Hi,

In follow-up to my note of a few days ago I am writing to respectfully ask that you change the name of your listing to avoid confusion with the name of my listing in the area. Gateway to the Rainforest™ is a registered trademark that I have the rights to use. Your listing name is sufficiently similar to create confusion.

Thanks in advance,

(So i’ve changed the names here to protect her listing, I don’t actually have anything to do with the Amazon rainforest, but essentially it is the same principle, just different natural object :slight_smile: ) The name of her listing is “Gateway to the Rainforest” whereas mine is “Amazon’s Gateway”. Our area is commonly known as the Gateway to the Rainforest as this is the last town before you get to the forest, so I guess I didn’t think anything of it when I put up my listing, and I haven’t seen her ad before, though she is a superhost and obviously doing well out of it.

I checked out the trade mark site and she has officially listed it. She also says in her message that she has contacted me about this before, she hasn’t, this is the first i’ve heard from her so i’m guessing she is hunting down everyone who uses the word gateway in the area and has got me confused.

Anyway, just thought this is something hosts should be aware of. I’d never thought of trade marking a Airbnb name. Has anyone else had a similar issue?

Both your listing name and hers are not “trademarks”; they are Service Marks" like the phrase “Where’s The Beef!”

I would personally ignore her request to change your listing name. Let her sue if she’s so adamant!

I worked in and around trademarking issues for many years, and I simply do not see anyone “confusing” your listing name for her listing name, despite the fact that they both contain the word Gateway. That’s the ultimate test – can the average person easily distinguish between the two “trademarks”.

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Agree. Ridiculous for her to accuse you of trademark infringement. In fact your listing name might actually belong to Airbnb!!!

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Both your listing name and hers are not “trademarks”; they are Service Marks" like the phrase “Where’s The Beef!”

No, she has definitely tradmarked that saying. It is listed on the government IP website as a Registered Trademark as of April this year. Though how this applies to general use of the term I have no idea.

Though I agree that I don’t think anyone would confuse our listings and I don’t think they are close enough for her to do anything about. When I book a place on Airbnb it is photos and price that generally get me in, i’ve never really noticed the listing names.

Yeah, I found it really odd! I don’t know anything about this kind of stuff, and honestly, I don’t want to put much more time into in other than warning people that it may be a thing to think about. In the end I changed my listing to “Amazon Getaway” instead of Gateway, but just responded to her saying that she must have misread my listing or contacted the wrong person…just to be annoying. But yeah, I guess I kind of feel bullied into changing a my listing for no real reason.

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She’s no doubt the type who would have screenshotted your listing (and trade mark infringement) before messaging you.

I’m reminded of a woman on Ramsey’s nightmares who trademarked the word ‘hon’. The place was called Cafe Hon but she attempted to prevent anyone using the word ‘hon’. As you can imagine she was not at all popular with the other locals.

Interesting case in Ireland between a fastfood Irish outlet called Supermac’s and McDonalds.

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Yes probably! She hasn’t responded to me though so maybe it worked haha.

Anyway, i’ve been reading up on this a bit and I think maybe she does have some basis for it, though it would be tricky for both of us to argue, so probably best that I just change mine and be done with her. The issues arise because we both have exactly the same business…but then it’s really Airbnb’s business so complicated.

So I asked Airbnb about Trademarking a name and what I should do. I submitted it through their email enquiry system and after a few days I hadn’t heard anything so I tried Twitter. They ended up responding to both.

One told me that an Airbnb listing name cannot be Trademarked and that I should ignore the other host and keep my original listing name. The second response told me that I was infringing on the other hosts IP and that I needed to change my name or seek legal advice.

I’ll just change it to be safe, but be aware everyone!

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