How You May Succeed In Registering An Affinity Mark Despite Another's Identical Mark

The Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority, which dates back to 1898 and is popularly known as ZTA, was refused registration of ZTA for jewelry (claiming use since at least 1915) and clothing items (claiming use since at least 1940), despite its ownership of an existing 2001 registration of this mark for association services, because of a 2020 registration of ZTA for a variety of housewares and kitchen items owned by a Chinese company (claiming use since 2019). The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) affirmed this refusal. Why did this happen, and how can you avoid the same result?

In determining whether there was a likelihood of confusion as to the source of the goods displaying these identical marks, the TTAB focused on the similarity of the goods, channels of trade, and class of customers.