We’ve been spilling a lot of digital ink lately on the topic of non-traditional trademark protection and how the functionality doctrine serves as an absolute bar for such protection.

As you know, for some time, we’ve been stressing the importance of close collaboration between trademark and marketing types when it comes to forming public communications

Continuing our ramp up toward the launch of our Strategies for Owning Your Product Designs webinar next week, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Morton-Norwich factors — the common analysis for determining whether a product design or feature can be owned as a trademark or whether it is functional and part of the public

We’ve spilled a lot of digital ink here over the past several years discussing the protection of non-traditional trademarks. We’ve also written about the importance of layering various intellectual property rights (trademark, copyright, and patent) to accomplish the competitive goals of a business. And, we’ve enjoyed writing about non-traditional vodka branding here and here

A couple of months ago you will recall that the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) held “Pretzel Crisps” generic for pretzel crackers.

Here are links to our previous coverage of the case:

Over the past five years, we have spilled a lot of black digital ink discussing trademark ownership of single colors. Color continues to be an important aspect of branding and differentiation in a variety of markets, including many you’d expect, and some you might not.

Christian Louboutin’s red color trademark helps to illustrate the

If you are Samuel R. Mott, founder of Mott’s LLP, apparently the answer is no.  Mott’s LLP filed applications to register “MOTT’S” for “baby foods” and “packaged combinations consisting of fresh fruit.”  (Serial Nos. 85/374,805 & 85/436,615)

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“the Board”) refused to register the marks set forth in these applications