Hyatt and Hilton both launched their “Select” brands in 2025, and Hyatt has now filed a formal opposition to Hilton’s “Select by Hilton” trademark application.
Hyatt Select is Hyatt’s lower accomondation brands, while Hilton plans to bring outside brands, such as recently launched YOTEL, part of its loyalty and distribution offering under the “Select by Hilton”.
You can access Hilton here, and Hyatt here.
Hyatt’s Select by Hilton trademark opposition filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB):
The key is whether consumers would confuse Hyatt Select and Select by Hilton, and I doubt they would, and SELECT is a commonly used, generic word.
Here’s an excerpt from what Trademark Attorney Josh Gerben wrote in his blog:
At the center of the dispute is a fundamental question of trademark law: How much protection should a company receive for a word like ‘SELECT’?
The answer: not very much.
Trademark law operates on a sliding scale of distinctiveness. The more unique a trademark is in relation to the products or services it identifies, the stronger its potential legal protection.
This doesn’t mean Hyatt cannot establish trademark rights in ‘SELECT.’ It means the company may face a difficult challenge in proving that those rights extend far enough to prevent Hilton from using ‘SELECT BY HILTON’.
The presence of the ‘HILTON’ name in the challenged trademark could also become an important consideration in determining whether consumers are likely to confuse the two brands.
Conclusion
From the consumer perspective, there is zero chance of confusing these two brands, and besides, they compete in a different segment:
Hyatt Select is low-end hotel accommodation.
Select by Hilton is essentially a collection brand, under which independent brands, such as YOTEL, can join.
I mean, couldn’t either of these hoteliers choose a more exciting word than “SELECT”?