Digit instead of a letter (leetspeak)
"F0RTECH" instead of "FORTECH", "B4" instead of "Before": digits that look like letters or sound like them are a popular attempt at circumvention – and mostly a futile one.
The zero stays an O
In "leetspeak", letters are replaced by digits of similar appearance or sound: 0 for O, 1 for I/L, 3 for E, 4 for "for". The public decodes this effortlessly and keeps reading the original word.
Because sound and meaning remain intact, these digit tricks create no distance in trademark law.
Example
This is what such a collision looks like
What stays readable stays confusable
If you automatically read the digit as a letter, it stays the same trademark.
Does free basic protection detect this?
Free basic protection reports the exact spelling. Digit-for-letter variants are sound and visual approximations – Pro's similarity analysis is what detects them.
More on spelling & variants
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This article is for information and does not constitute legal advice.