Blog || munim.in: Com'on, you cannot trademark anything!!

Sunday, 10 May 2015

Com'on, you cannot trademark anything!!

Below are some of the Trademark Attempts that....failed/approved. Find Out!!!

Walmart tried to claim the happy face

Status: Denied

The smiley face has been around since the 70s, but that didn’t stop Walmart from trying to trademark it in 2006.

The chain even tried to sue artist Charles Smith for parodying the symbol. The courts, however, ruled that the smiley face is public domain.

Paris Hilton won a huge lawsuit over Hallmark for infringing on her trademarked catchphrase: "That's Hot!"

Status: Approved

Say what you will about the hotel heiress, just don’t try to slap her catchphrase on your product.

In 2007, she sued Hallmark for using the expression, and her likeness, on one of its cards -- and she won.

Who says blondes are dumb?

Twitter lost the word “tweet” to a third-party developer.

Status: Denied

The micro-blogging service may be worth billions, but it still can’t claim ownership over the word “tweet”.

The trademarks office rejected Twitter’s application because of an earlier claim by a third-party developer. Twittad, a Twitter-based advertising service, trademarked the phrase “Let Your Ad Meet Tweets" in 2008.

Subway sent cease-and-desist letters to vendors before it actually owned the

rights to “footlong”.

Status: Pending

The sandwich chain has been trying to slap a trademark on its "footlong" sandwiches for years. Not only is Subway battling opposition from other big chains like Pizza Hut and KFC, it faces smaller restaurants too.

Subway's lawyer reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to a Coney Island hot dog shop and an Iowa-based general store. The latter responded with a major lawsuit. Too bad Subway doesn't actually own any rights to the term.