It is State Fair time again in Minnesota, so let’s examine the Tilt-a-Whirl brand.
The brand originated in Minnesota almost 90 years ago, after the amusement park ride was invented by Herbert Sellner of Faribault, Minnesota. Since 2011 the Tilt-a-Whirl brand and trademark has been owned by J&S Rides, d/b/a Larson International out of
Louis Armstrong first performed “Mack the Knife” in 1956, a year later McDonald’s introduced the Big Mac, and then, Bobby Darin’s version of “Mack the Knife” became a chart-topper in 1959.
So, these events were all before my time, but I’m left wondering if there was any connection between them, back in the day,
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
We recently focused our attention on a very unique-looking, dare I say distinctive, retail store exterior design; for a quick reminder, see here.
The recent craze for self-serve frozen yogurt shops — where you pay by the ounce (or perhaps, by the pound), has us focused today on a pretty darn unique interior retail
With the constant stream of news reporting about the impending “fiscal cliff,” how can there be no U.S. federal trademark filings containing those two terms, at the moment anyway?
Federal intent-to-use trademark applications typically follow popular catchphrases (as Tiffany Blofield, Brent Lorentz and Jon Applebaum have written about before), even political ones
Today marks the end of the 2010 Minnesota State Fair.
Sad day, but Happy Labor Day!
It also marks an opportunity to talk a bit about the frequently encountered question of trademark priority, frozen trademark rights, the creation of common law trademark rights, and the frequently forgotten concurrent registration trademark tool, using my favorite frozen custard stand at the MN State Fair, as
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.
Under Consideration’s Brand New Blog has on two recent occasions commented about the trend in using white as the color for product packaging of consumable goods. Wal-Mart was the first to use this color packaging for its private label brand and the European community appears to be following suit. Using a white background has its marketing
Kimberly-Clark® is no stranger to securing federal registrations for its various non-traditional trademarks. No doubt, these unconventional trademark assets are of great commercial value and an important part of K-C’s evolving business strategy and intellectual property portfolio.
My previous post about the oval-shaped facial tissue container K-C was able to federally register in November 2007 is linked here. That post also discussed their current non-traditional trademark application covering a “textured alternating dot pattern appearing on the surface of the carton of disposable paper hand-towels.” By way of update, it was initially refused registration in April, but the application remains pending, as can be seen here, with no response due until October 2009.
Kimberly-Clark® has non-traditional, single color trademarks too:
In fact, I recently came across a pair of their federal trademark registrations for “the color purple,” one obtained in 2002 and the other in 2006. The differences in the description of goods between these two “color purple” registrations help make a point that is quite important to both marketing and trademark types, namely, the importance of keeping registered trademark scope current and consistent with the underlying and evolving business scope.
The question of whether federal trademark registration should be pursued is a frequent question of those in the marketing world, especially during difficult economic times. I wrote a short piece for Create Magazine a couple of years ago, and you can read it, here. As you will see, there are many benefits to registration