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It’s an interesting case and point of law when it comes down to jurisdictions here to speak

  It even gets more interesting when the competing jurisdictions are not within the same country / continent / time zones or even culture and language

   As example in point, here in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada we had a case where a local furniture operation “Bricks Fine Furniture” which was a family business run by a Mr. Brick for 50 years, being well known as an operation of upper quality product lines, was told by a big box mass merchandiser of home furnishings “The Brick” to cease and desist using the Brick name when selling furniture.

     It turned out that “Bricks Fine Furniture” had a valid longstanding provincial license to the name; “The Brick” had a federal license.  Even the politicians were confused.  What resulted was a long protracted expensive public battle for both.  It was a classic big guy versus little guy conflict.  It may be said that this was a very good source of free advertising for Mr. Brick of the smaller operation.  However his market is more limited, lawyers are expensive, time in a small family operation is limited, and his customer base knew him anyway.  In the end it was settled somehow.  But neither party felt that in the end that it was worth all the effort.

       Imagine if you throw in other jurisdictions such as China, India or Malaysia into the mix.