How can I trademark name?

If someone files for a corporation name in the same field as our company can we still file a name trademark?

• We recently participated in a startup course competition and won (yay us). Unfortunately there was another team in the competition with a somewhat related product  proposal (same market area for sure).  They were under another company name for the competition, but after seeing our practice presentation incorporated as a corporation in Delaware under our name (we know their exact filing date).  We really like our company name and think there is a good chance they did not file for a trademark considering they did not get the www domain name, which we have done.  I am too cynical to think it was a coincidence, but I really wish I could believe that.  They even came to us at some point after our talk and said "oh what a coincidence, we actually incorporated a long time ago under that name" when in reality they did so 10 days after our practice presentation. Their product is probably a decade away from market whereas ours will be <2 years, hence they did not even place in the competition. What should we do?  We have prize money to file for the trademark, but it will just confuse people if there is a company with the same name. So lame.

• Answer:

  Trademarks go in order of the filing of the trademark. Not the filing of the company name. I agree, it is confusing if there are two companies with the same name. So get a trademark before them and force them to change their name. That's the purpose of trademarks in the first place. If they beat you to it, that's sad. But it is pretty rare that a business idea is so tightly tied to the name of the business or product that the endeavor fails if a name change is required. Also note, you can't just file trademarks for names of products you never make. The trademark filing requires things like actual usage of the name in public, such as marketing material or start-up competition presentations. So you already have an edge over them for the trademark filing. Get a lawyer. You need one for the trademark filing anyway. They can tell you all of the concerns that relate to the exact product, idea, name in contention, and the market you are competing in.