Duets Blog : Punctuation

Home > Punctuation >

Question Mark Brands?

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Steve Baird

A couple of months ago I blogged about Branding Exclamations!

Before that I blogged about Increasingly Intense Ellipsis Branding . . . .

Now, it appears I must revisit the subject of punctuation mark branding given Cadbury Adams' new Mega Mystery Stride brand gum, prominently featuring a question mark logo on the packaging where the S logo normally appears.

The mystery apparently surrounds the presently undisclosed flavor of the gum. The unknown flavor appears to be part of Stride's claimed Ridiculously Long Lasting Gum, not to be confused, of course, with Wrigley's Curiously Strong mints and gum (Altoids).

Anyway, my daughter brought a pack of the ? gum home and said, "Daddy, you should blog about this," so now you know the inspiration for my curiously strong or ridiculously long attention to this subject.

I fully expected to find a pending trademark application filed by Cadbury Adams for the "?" symbol, given its ridiculously flavorful interest in single letter chewing gum brands. To my surprise, however, I found none, at least yet.

As you might have imagined, I did find some "?" trademarks of others, as shown below. Do you recognize any of them? Each "?" image is linked to the corresponding trademark record at the U.S. Trademark Office.

Turns out, there is a ? trademark battle heating up too. Not in the world of confections, but rather in the world of fashion. Just days ago, Guess IP Holder L.P., owner of the famous Guess brand, filed a Trademark Opposition against one of the above Question Mark logos, guess which one?

It asserted ownership of these federally-registered trademarks:

But not any of these, for some reason:

To find out, click here for a link to a copy of the Notice of Opposition.

Any more questions?

Request Info

See our or enter your information below to send us a quick message and we'll reply in one business day or less.

Your privacy is ensured. We will never sell, disclose, or trade contact information.

Branding Exclamations!

Posted on November 29, 2009 by Steve Baird

Mark Image

Can you name the owner of this exclamation mark branding signal?

You may be surprised to learn it is federally-registered in the U.S. as a stand-alone non-verbal trademark.

You may be even more surprised to learn, it was federally-registered without a showing of secondary meaning or acquired distinctiveness, because it was viewed as an inherently distinctive non-verbal trademark.

This is no ordinary exclamation mark, however, the trademark owner claims it in a 3D appearance, does that help?

Here's another clue: In Latin American countries, the brand name associated with this particular punctuation mark is Pepitos!

Last clue: Would it help to know the goods associated with this registered trademark are chocolate chip cookies?

Answer below the jump.

Here is the answer, and here is the link to the trademark information.

By the way, have you ever noticed this trademark on Kraft's or Nabisco's Chips Ahoy packaging, at least before now?

Me neither, despite being a trademark geek, and despite encountering (and assisting in the consumption of) more than a few packages over many years.

How many ways are there to dress up an exclamation mark (without words) as a trademark anyway?

And, the award for the most disguised exclamation goes to . . . "an exclamation mark within a wolf head design interwoven with a serpant design."

At this point, I'm thinking that the Chips Ahoy exclamation is starting to look a little ordinary.

Now, if adding an exclamation mark (what the USPTO calls "common punctuation") to the end of a series of descriptive words (e.g., America's Favorite Popcorn!) is not adding enough to avoid mere descriptiveness (TMEP 1209.03(u)), how is it that an exclamation mark can immediately function as an inherently disctinctive trademark all by itself?

With respect to International protection for exclamation marks, recently, German clothing and fragrance designer Joop! apparently lost its bid to register an exclamation mark as a trademark in the European Union, report here. Basically, the EU was not going to assume distinctiveness, Joop! had to prove it, and apparently failed.

What do you suppose the USPTO knows about registering common punctuation marks as inherently distinctive trademarks that the EU doesn't?

An Increasingly Intense Ellipsis? dot, doT, dOT, DOT!

Posted on November 9, 2009 by Steve Baird

Mark Image

As you may recall, last month, we had some fun trying to solve the mystery of a non-traditional and non-verbal trademark owned by Amazon.com, here.

This time the non-traditional and non-verbal mystery mark shown above is described in trademark filings as consisting of "four circles that increase in size from left to right." I call it an "increasingly intense ellipsis." What would you call it, if you had to give it a name?

More importantly, have you seen it before? Do you recognize it? Are you surprised to know it is registered and protected as a trademark? Do you know what goods and services are associated with it? Do you know who owns it?

OK, need more information?

You don't need the products bearing this "increasingly intense ellipsis" mark or the services associated with it to shop online at Amazon.com or any other online retailer. Did that help?

No? Here's another hint: It is used in close association with this service mark: Tap & Go.

Still not enough? Alright, enough suspense?

The visual answer and more discussion is below the jump.

Yes, MasterCard is the owner of this "increasingly intense ellipsis" (my words) mark, for financial services in Int'l Class 36, and smart cards in Int'l Class 9. The non-traditional mark is used in close association with MasterCard's PayPass and Tap & Go marks at the physical -- not virtual -- point of retail sale.

Now, given that a trademark and service mark must (1) identify goods or services, (2) distinguish them from those of others, and (3) indicate the source of the goods or services, do you agree that the "increasingly intense ellipsis" performs each of these critical trademark functions?

If so, does it do so standing alone, without the closely associated MasterCard housemark or PayPass secondary mark?

Isn't this the kind of mark where "look-for advertising" would help consumers know this actually is a trademark instead of simply non-distinctive ornamentation?

Duets Blog

Suite 3500 | 225 South Sixth Street |

Minneapolis, MN 55402-4629

Telephone:

(612) 604-6400

| Fax:

(612) 604-6800

Intellectual property lawyer & attorneys at Duets Blog, offering services related to copyrights, trademarks, brand management, patents, licensing and marketing issues.

Duets Blog : Creativity and the Law: DuetsBlog

Collaborations in creativity & the law

Question Mark Brands?

Branding Exclamations!

An Increasingly Intense Ellipsis? dot, doT, dOT, DOT!

Steve Baird

Michael Olsen

Brad Walz

Brent Lorentz

Dan Kelly

Karen Brennan

Sharon Armstrong

Tiffany Blofield

Laura Gutierrez