The Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, also known as ADM, filed an opposition to Maksim Slyusarchuck’s application to trademark ADM BANK on Wednesday before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. ADM claimed that it has spent a significant amount of resources promoting ADM’s services and its trademark and that approval of the applicant’s trademark would damage its business.
Slyusarchuck filed an application for the ADM BANK trademark on April 19, 2019, and said its intended use is for banking, including issuing credit and debit cards, commercial and mortgage lending services, and debit account services with computer readable cards. The applicant is the CEO of AD Mortgage, a direct lending company based in Hollywood, Fla.
ADM is a prominent agriculture company, which was placed on the Fortune 500 list as one of the top 100 companies and has over $65 billion in net sales. It has registered the trademark for ADM in the United States since 1986 and continually used the trademark and had numerous ADM trademarks approved for various uses, creating a “family of marks.” ADM in its opposition stated that it owns “all right, title, and interest in and to the ADM Marks, as well as the goodwill associated therewith.”
Despite the differences in product between the two companies, the opposer claimed there would be a likelihood of confusion between the two marks because they are similar in appearance. ADM also claimed registration of the trademark would cause dilution of its brand, after it has invested in creating a distinctive brand.
In its notice of opposition, the company declared it is an “undisputed market leader” in global agriculture and that for “over a century” it has “been one of the largest global agribusiness companies with operations all over the world, engaging in the business of manufacturing, transporting, storing, processing, marketing, and promoting a wide variety of agricultural, consumer, and industrial products and services.”
Archer-Daniels-Midland Company is represented by Innis Law Group and Maksim Slyusarchuk is represented by Regojo Law.
