We’ve spilled a lot of digital ink on the importance of “look for” advertising when a brand owner wants to legally own a non-traditional trademark like a single color, or perhaps the shape of a product, or even product packaging or containers, among other potential non-traditional marks.

So, when

Fame tends to attract attention, and imitation, especially unwanted imitation from, well, even pests. The Google trademark appears to have obtained such a high degree of fame that no third party can include the word “Google” in its mark without having a problem, regardless of what the third party happens to be selling. Ron,

Repetition can be a beautiful thing, especially when it’s about The Real Thing:

This electronic billboard advertisement is another good example of Coca-Cola advertising that leaves certain aspects of the brand icons to the imagination, this one discloses only the middle portion of the famous contour bottle shape trademark.

And, speaking of

By now you know how much I love the Coca-Cola brand and advertising, and this beautiful gem of a billboard is no exception:

What I’m left wondering is whether consumers might view this as a co-branding campaign between Coca-Cola and Ford, and whether Coca-Cola felt the need to obtain permission from Ford to depict

There is no point to spending money on advertising if those experiencing it don’t understand who’s communicating about what brand, right?

So, as drivers quickly pass by this attractive roadside billboard sign, how do they know who put out the ad? There must be a brand signature, right?

Certainly there can be no signature or

It should be no surprise that the famous Coca-Cola brand name is federally-registered. One of the many significant benefits of federal registration is the USPTO’s obligation to refuse registration of third party marks that are likely to confuse — most importantly, without the prompting or involvement of the prior trademark registrant.

No doubt Coca-Cola will

Coca-Cola settled on its famous contour bottle design almost 100 years ago, in 1916, after several years of trials with other far less distinctive shapes (at least under today’s standards):

Federal trademark registration data confirms the first use date to be July 8, 1916. The description of the contour bottle design mark in 1960 was: