James and I grew up in a town in Maine called Holden, so the name meant a lot to us. A couple months ago someone had mentioned the Holden snowboarding company.

James and I grew up in a town in Maine called Holden, so the name meant a lot to us. A couple months ago someone had mentioned the Holden snowboarding company. We did some research on trademark fair use, and ultimately agreed that because Holden was a geographic area, and because we weren’t doing outerwear or snowboard gear, and because our clothes won’t have any visible logos, there’d be no chance a consumer would confuse the brands. A handful of people on HackerNews pointed out that it might be more of a conflict than anticipated.* Holden sells all sorts of clothes, including the type of shirts you would be selling. There is significant potential for consumer confusion.