Can you tell the difference between an Iron Maiden-branded piece of merchandise and an undergarment from a company called Maiden Wear? Well if Iron Maiden gets their way, you won't have to!
According to a report by Complete Music Update, Iron Maiden is attempting to stop a person named Min Yu Chen from trademarking the brand name Maiden Wear "to sell abdominal corsets, shapewear, bras, lingerie, and panties." Iron Maiden's legal team claims that the Maiden Wear brand would likely cause confusion in consumers because Iron Maiden also sells clothing items. The lawsuit then goes on to list Iron Maiden's clothing offerings as "t-shirts, tank tops, long sleeve shirts, shorts, jerseys, sweatshirts, sweatpants, pants, jackets, hats, leather wrist bands, scarves and shoes." Notice anything missing in that list?
"The dominant term in applicant's Maiden Wear mark is Maiden and therefore the mark is confusingly similar in appearance and connotation to opposer's Iron Maiden mark," reads a portion of the lawsuit. "Moreover, the goods set forth in the Maiden Wear application are related to or the same as goods covered by the Iron Maiden registration and/or for which opposer has acquired common law rights in the United States.
"Thus, applicant's Maiden Wear mark, when used in connection with the goods described in the Maiden Wear application, is likely to deceive or cause consumer confusion or mistake among members of the public and potential purchasers as to the source, sponsorship or composition of applicant's goods in relation to opposer's goods. Such confusion will damage opposer and injure its reputation in the trade and with the public."
Oddly, Iron Maiden doesn't seem to have a problem with the long-running "intimates and shapewear" brand Maidenform. This is especially strange considering Iron Maiden's problem with Maiden Wear being that the "dominant term in applicant's Maiden Wear mark is Maiden" and that Maidenform also sells clothes in the Untied States.
