About This Course
This CLE course examines the likelihood-of-confusion analysis under Section 2(d) of the Lanham Act from a prosecution-side vantage point. Rather than treating the DuPont factors as an abstract multi-factor test, the presentation works through how those factors are weighted in office actions, how cross-class refusal risk is evaluated when goods or services fall outside identical categories, and how consent agreements are structured — both before filing and in response to a refusal — to overcome a §2(d) rejection. The course is built for practitioners who file and prosecute trademark applications directly, not for those seeking a survey-level introduction to trademark law.
Learning Objectives:
• Apply the DuPont factors to a §2(d) likelihood-of-confusion refusal and identify which factors carry the most weight in a given fact pattern.
• Evaluate cross-class refusal risk during clearance and prosecution, including when marks in unrelated classes still present conflict exposure.
• Structure a consent agreement — proactively, before an application is filed, or reactively, in response to a cited refusal — that satisfies USPTO expectations.
• Draft a persuasive office action response to a §2(d) refusal grounded in TTAB precedent rather than conclusory argument.
