Nearing the final stretch of a construction period that is six years and counting, Dan Gilbert's Hudson's site development in downtown Detroit is facing one more challenge: convincing federal officials to register its trademarks.

The Patent and Trademark Office issued preliminary refusals last month to several trademark applications, submitted by Gilbert's Bedrock real estate firm, for official names and graphic designs for the Hudson's site.

The proposed names include "Hudson's Detroit," "Hudson's" and "Hudsons," as well as a never-before-seen design for a "Hudsons Detroit" logo.

Trademarks allow businesses to protect their brand identity from copycats and differentiate themselves from competitors at a national level.

A trademark officer examiner claimed that Bedrock's proposals are too similar to existing trademarks containing the words "Hudson" or "Hudsons," and therefore pose a likelihood of causing confusion among consumers. The trademark office gave Bedrock three months to respond to its Dec. 7 preliminary decision to not register the marks.

Bedrock did not respond to a Free Press request for comment about the situation. However, if the firm opts to continue pursuing the trademarks, it would have some facts in its favor:

• Two existing trademarks cited by the examiner as too similar to Bedrock's proposed Hudson's site marks are for restaurants that appear to be permanently closed. Those restaurants were Hudson's at Pier 81, located in New York City, and Hudsons on the Mile, located in Freeport, New York.

• Another trademark cited by the examiner, for Hudsons Coffee, belongs to an Australian chain of coffee shops — with no U.S. locations on its website.

• And a trademark for a Hudson hotel was for a shuttered 24-story hotel in New York City that, according to news reports, closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and then was sold and slated for redevelopment as housing.

The other mark cited by the examiner is a still-pending trademark application for The Hudson Cafe at 1241 Woodward Ave. in downtown Detroit — directly across from the Hudson's site. Although the cafe's trademark application was submitted May 31, it says the mark has been in active use since 2011.

Nearly four months after The Hudson Cafe's submission, Bedrock filed its trademark requests for the Hudson's site. The trademarks would apply to a range of future services at the two buildings under construction: real estate, restaurants, hotel service, food halls, bars, conference space and entertainment venue rentals.

Free Press messages seeking comment from The Hudson Cafe about the trademarks situation weren't returned.

Attorney Jake Grove, an adjunct professor of intellectual property law at the University of Detroit Mercy Law school, said in interviews this week that it is very common for trademark applicants to encounter some resistance at first from the trademark office.

These initial refusals can be overcome, he said, if an applicant can come back with good arguments for why there wouldn't be much overlap with its desired trademark and existing uses.

"One of the things the trademark office wants to do, when they are looking at granting these registrations, is make sure that there is not going to be confusion in the marketplace," Grove said, "because that’s the whole point of trademarks — to let people know who is who and what is what.”

Grove said it appears the trademark examiner took a conservative approach in the initial evaluation of Bedrock's applications, erring toward acknowledging existing trademarks.

Initial examinations typically involve a basic review of trademark registrations for potential conflicts, according to Grove, rather than a more in-depth look into whether a trademark is still in active use.

“The trademark (examiner) is being conservative and issuing this refusal and saying, ‘if this is important to you, you either amend or you’re going to argue back and point out facts that maybe aren’t immediately evident to me,' " said Grove, who also handles trademark cases at the Howard & Howard law firm in Royal Oak.

"Bedrock may have a bunch of facts and arguments about why there is no likelihood of confusion. They might even support (their application) with a statement from one of these registrants.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office declined to comment for this article.

If Bedrock were to fight the refusal and eventually win over the trademark office, any opponents to its trademarks would have 30 days to voice objections and explain why their businesses would be harmed.

Registering the trademarks isn't absolutely necessary for Bedrock to start using the names and new logos for the Hudson's site, Grove said.

But if Bedrock were to go that route, it would run the risk of someone stepping forward with infringement claims. It also would make it more difficult for Bedrock to stop someone from misusing the Hudson's site logo.

An earlier Hudson

The $1.4 billion Hudson's site development, 1208 Woodward, is on the site of the legendary J.L. Hudson department store, which closed in 1983 and was imploded in 1998.

Bedrock broke ground for the Hudson's site development in December 2017 and is running more than two years behind the initial schedule. The project has two side-by-side buildings: a 49-story skyscraper and wider 12-story building.

The skyscraper is expected to contain a 210-room Edition Hotel and just under 100 condos. The other building is to have spaces for offices, events, restaurants and retail space. Development officials have given Bedrock a Dec. 31, 2024, deadline to reach "substantial completion" of the project.

No objection yet from Hudson Yards

One "Hudson" development not cited by the trademark office as a potential cause of confusion is the Hudson Yards megaproject of retail, offices and residences, built on the west side of New York's Manhattan, near the Hudson River, by Detroit native Stephen Ross' The Related Cos.

Ross' firm recently teamed up with the Ilitch organization to build the $1.5 billion District Detroit development in and around downtown Detroit, although it has yet to break ground. Ross also is the primary private donor for the $250 million University of Michigan Center for Innovation in Detroit that got underway last month.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dan Gilbert’s Hudson’s development gets a ‘no’ from trademark office