–Susan Perera, Attorney
The revival of retro logos and packaging seems to be everywhere this year. You can hardly go into a store without seeing another product that is revisiting an old look. I snapped this shot during a shopping trip over the weekend and I’m not the only one who’s noticing, you can see images of Pepsi’s throwback products and General Mill’s retro packaging at Design O’Blog.
The return of these once forgotten logos made me wonder which ones are protected, and if periodical throwback advertising may be a strategy for maintaining trademark registrations.
A little research uncovered that Frito-Lay just filed for the design mark shown here in January 2011, but claims first use back to 1968.
While Pepsico has been able to maintain its registration for this stylization since 1937, even in light of numerous new logos since that time.
So, what are your thoughts on these retro looks?