Is it legal to use barbie brand namei see the book adios barbie and the website hard to find any definite answers on if i need to worry about being sued if i too use in book title or businessnamethx?

Answer 1

As far as I know, it wasn't the name barbie that got the makers of adios, barbie sued it was the shoe, brush and pink. In order to retain a trademark, the holder must actively defend it, meaning that if you use the name you should expect to get a cease-and-desist letter at minimum. You should consult an intellectual property lawyer for advice on whether your specific planned use constitutes an infringement or not. Basically if you're using it in such a way that there's no possibility that anyone would confuse your business or product with official Barbie merchandise from Mattel, you're on much firmer legal ground.

For example: if your name is Barbara, and everyone calls you Barbie, and you want to open a business called Barbie's Auto Repair, it's not likely that anyone would think that a plastic doll was going to be working on their car. However, you still couldn't copy the Barbie logo.