Does the toothpaste Colddate infringe upon the trademark of Colgate? Some might think this is a no-brainer. But in a 2007 lawsuit between the two brands, Colgate-Palmolive lost on the grounds that the two brands were “similar” but not “substantially indistinguishable.”
Determining trademark infringement can often be challenging and fraught with controversy. The reason is that, at its core, a verdict for infringement requires proof that the two brands are confusingly similar. And yet the existing approach primarily relies on self-report, which is known to be vulnerable to biases and manipulation.
