Dr. Dre loses trademark challenge to Pittsburgh OB-GYN

by: Laura Evans, CPC May 10, 2018

Their names may be pronounced the same way, but that is about the extent of the similarities between celebrity rap star Dr. Dre and Pittsburgh OB-GYN and media personality Dr. Drai.

That was the decision handed down May 3 by the U.S. Patent Office in dismissing the challenge brought by Andre Young, a.k.a. Dr. Dre against Draion M. Burch D.O., who goes by Dr. Drai in the sex education videos and books that he markets on his website.

The case has been before the patent office since October 2015, when Burch applied to trademark the names “Dr. Drai” and “Doctor Drai OBGYN and Media Personality” and soon received a cease and desist letter from the rapper, the Washington Post reports.

Dr. Dre claimed their similar names would cause consumers to be confused. But the patent office found that the rapper failed to demonstrate that people would be misled by the OB-GYN’s Dr. Drai trademark and buy his products thinking they were Dr. Dre’s, according to the Post.

Dr. Dre has the rap album titled “The Chronic,” but Dr. Drai’s latest is a book called “20 Things You May Not Know About the Vagina,” the Post points out.

Burch says he “was just so appalled how someone would think that I wanted to be them,” after receiving the cease and desist letter. “I actually went to medical school … I was hurt that someone was attacking me in my position as being a doctor. And I earned the right to be a physician,” the OB-GYN is quoted as saying in the patent office ruling.

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