Using the (mostly hypothetical) facts given below, evaluate the earliest date on which Zoom Technologies can claim trademark rights in the United States. In your response, also explain why other possible priority dates are incorrect. For purposes of this question, ignore any potential conflicting rights held by Zoom Video Communications or any other company.

Zoom Technologies

Zoom Technologies (ZT) is a cybersecurity training company originally based in Hyderabad, India. ZT was founded in 2006, and at that time, its business was entirely focused on in-person cybersecurity courses at its two training facilities in Hyderabad. ZT's students are information technology engineers and professionals, initially mostly drawn from the Hyderabad area, which is something of a tech corridor in India. The company started small, but over the last several years, ZT has grown to now be the leading cybersecurity training company in India, training over 20,000 students each year, almost all from India. Over the years, there have been about 50 students from the U.S. who attended ZT's courses in India, generally people with some sort of connection to India. Since its inception in 2006, ZT has had a website at zoomgroup.com.

In November 2019, ZT decided to expand its operations into the United States. That month, ZT opened an office in New York City and began to make plans for training programs in the U.S. ZT hired a small marketing team to solicit students. Beginning in January 2020, the marketing team placed ads for ZT on Google, Facebook, and other Internet platforms, targeting information technology professionals in the New York City area. In the first quarter of 2020, these ads generated about 20,000 impressions and about 150 click throughs. By the beginning of March 2020, ZT had lined up an initial class of 12 students who paid for an in-person training program in New York City that was to start at the end of that month. When the coronavirus shutdown made it impossible to proceed with the initial training program, ZT quickly pivoted to offering the training program online instead. The start date for the initial cohort was pushed back to mid-April, but the class size actually grew, since more people were able to join from around the country. Since then, ZT has had about 100 U.S. students per month in its online training courses.

On September 1, 2020, Zoom Technologies obtained an assignment from John Hering of "all trademark rights owned by John Hering in the word ZOOM and any associated goodwill." In early 2012, Hering created and sold an app for users to install in order to detect security vulnerabilities on their Android phones. Hering called his app the Zoom app. Hering continued to sell his Zoom app until June 30, 2016. Since then, the app has not been available for download or purchase, although it continues to function for those who had downloaded the app before then. Hering himself has moved on to other unrelated projects in the cybersecurity field.

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