We (me and my team) are working on a (software) project and are trying to pick a name for the group/team.
We have settled on "Watchdogs" (due to the project's nature). However, there is some concern that the name might be copyrighted and might get us in trouble. I'm aware of the game, however that's called "Watch Dogs" (two separate words).
Where should i start looking for this kind of thing? Like if a name is copyrighted and may get us in trouble or if it's fine to use?
Names cannot be copyrighted at all, in any country.
They can, however, be protected as trademarks.
The general idea is that if one uses a name to identify a product or service, or a creator of products or services, others cannot use the same or a similar name to identify their products or services in such a way that a reasonable person might be confused into thinking that the two came from the same source, or one was endorsed or approved by the other.
Trademarks are limited in scope to a particular country, A name that is protected in Canada, say, will not be protected in the US unless steps have been taken to protect it there.
In some countries a trademark must be officially registered to get any protection, In others, such as the United States, merely using the mark can give a degree of protection, although registration give more protection.
Each country maintains a trademark registry which can be searched for existing marks. There are search firms that will do such searches for a client, and also search for marks in use but not registered, for a fee.
Trademark protection is generally restricted by the type of product or service involved. An anti-virus program, say, called "Guard dog" would probably not interfere with a fantasy game called "Guardog". A private security service of the same name would pretty surely not interfere.
The range of protection depends on how widely known the product is, but "software related" is a very wide area, and except for famous marks, a mark protected in connection with one area of software will not be protected in a very different area of software.
Names that a purely invented, such as Kodak, are more strongly protected than descriptive marks such as "Best Pizza"
Particularly famous names such as "Microsoft" get additional protection even outside their usual areas, so "Microsoft Pizza" might be a problem.
Logos and other graphic marks can also be protected as trademarks, but that is not what the question asked about.
The styling of a trademark, such as a particular font, choice of colors, and so on, can also be protected. This is called "trade dress".
A disclaimer making it clear that a somewhat similar name is not related, and the is no affiliation can help avoid avoid an infringement suit. For example:
Pear brand kites are in no way associated with, sponsored or approved by the makers of Pear smartphones.
On this site we cannot give specific legal advise, so we cannot evaluate whether a specific proposed trademark would or would not infringe an existing mark.
It might be well to consult an attorney with trademark experiences before finally choosing a name and doing marketing under it.
