Ask HN: Trademark Problem?
tl;dr
I'm launching an eco-friendly personal care startup, starting with toothpaste and mouthwash tablets. I've chosen a generic brand name, but someone applied for a similar trademark in March 2023 for non-medicated skin care but same classification (003 Cosmetics and Personal Care). The linked IP lawyer often collaborates with China dropshipping businesses, and the trademark's address is a residential NYC house or it could be a mistake and its a factory that does whitelabel personal care products. My options are: 1) Oppose the trademark because it's generic, 2) Use the name and risk a cease and desist, especially when expanding my product line in the future, 3) Consider a new brand name due to domain and branding challenges.

I am launching an ecofriendly and sustainable personal care startup with the first product being toothpaste and mouthwash tablets / tabs. The product is a small tablet that you chew on and brush your teeth with after it dissolves in your mouth, or you can swirl it like a mouthwash. It tastes and feels mostly the same as a toothpaste and mouthwash would. In the future we are looking to expand our product line with more personal care offerings such as refillable shampoo and shower gel, household products and etc.

So I am trying to find a suitable name for the brand, and I am also browsing through trademark registrations. The name we came up with is quite a generic verb but fits the company very well and the domain name get<name>.com is available to register so its perfect, but a third party had applied for a trademark on the word back in March 2023 and its still pending. However, their trademark is under the classification 003 Cosmetics and Cleaning Preparations - with a subgroup of " Non-medicated skin care preparations, namely, cleansers, moisturizers ". I was trying to look up for more info on that product but nothing exists online. I found the IP laywer who applied for the trademark application and seems like he works for a lot of China dropshipping businesses. The address listed on the trademark points to a residential house in NY on google maps. It seems like there's some factory also on the same address that does some whitelabel personal care products but their website seems quite... how to say, bland, or rather generic. The trademark owner is some LLC that there's no other info on.

My questions are:

1. Apparently I can oppose a trademark based on the fact that its a generic word. I dont want to name the exact word but its as generic as the word Galvanize, or say Gamify. I can also oppose it on the grounds that there are other companies which are using the same word for personal care products, and I found some 2-3 that have used it already but they're not popular at all and I doubt they would want to mount a response. Should I go this route?

2. Go with the name and hope they wont send a cease and desist since it could just be some random chinese dropshipping thing. They cant stop me from using it for oral care products, but once we expand to personal care it could be a problem. Is this also a valid route?

3. Finding another brand name would be quite difficult in my situation. I've been trying to solve this for the past few weeks and generally nothing fits. Either domain names are like 10K or they dont fit our branding at all. But if its the last resort then I will have to go this way.