While a picture may be worth a thousand words, words are quite powerful. A few short words can capture major ideas, like these words from the list of the Words of Year from the Wall Street Journal: miners, iPad, blowout preventer, vuvuzela, tea party, WikiLeaks. Each word relates to a big story.
When words are as part of brand name or slogan, they take on a different role. That is the role of part or all of a trademark – something that distinguishes one company’s product or service from its competitors. Trademarks can be colors or sounds, but most often they are words.
Here are the words of the year according the editors of the Wall Street Journal, and trademark applications filed in 2010 which correspond with those words (click trademarks for USPTO records):
- Luge
- LUGEBOARD – pending application for recreational snow devices
- iPad
- IPAD – pending application for “Medical device, namely, adjustable air chambers for positioning patients for intubation during surgical procedures” owned y Nissen IPAD, LLC
- IPAD – pending applications owned by Slate Computer (USA) LLC for a variety of products and services
- IPAD and ipad– pending application filed by Marc Angell for “Laptop computer cooling pads, namely, insulated pad affixed to a laptop computer for the purpose of reducing the amount of heat radiating from the laptop computer” and “Neoprene laptop covers; Protective covers and cases for cell phones, laptops and portable media players; Protective sleeves for laptop computers”
- IPAD – pending applications filed by IP Application Development LLC (an Apple entity) for a variety of electronic goods and services
- IPAD – pending application filed by RXD Media, LLC for “Providing temporary use of a web-based software application for mobile-access database management whereby users can store and access their personal information”
- ipaD – pending application filed y Jeffrey S. Stafford DBA IP Advocates Dojo for “Business consulting services, namely, providing assistance in development of business strategies and creative ideation”
- iPads – pending application filed by TLC by TARA for “Paper stationery; Stationery writing paper and envelopes”
- Sudden Acceleration
- Eyjafjallajökull
- Blowout Preventer
- Greece
- Flash Crash
- Vuvuzela
- Tea Party
- who owns Tea Party name? More than 50+ US TM apps filed in 2010 containing TEA + PARTY! http://ow.ly/i/5cCk
- Miners
- Robo-signers
- Robosigner – pending application for legal services and Books in the field of foreclosure law and wrongful foreclosure legal services
- Check-In
- CHECK-IN – pending application by Foursquare Labs, Inc. for “downloadable software in the nature of a mobile application for displaying and sharing a user’s location and finding, locating, and interacting with other users and places” and “entertainment services, namely, providing on-line computer games”
- Check-In Works – pending application for “Computer software for controlling and managing patient medical information; Computer software for controlling self-service terminals”
- CHECK IN NETWORK – pending application for “Providing a telecommunications channel in the fields of tourism, travel, sports and cultural activities”
- Cholera
- Shellacking
- Tamaulipas
- Pat Down
- Jeggings
- WikiLeaks – remarkably, there is no U.S. trademark filing yet for WikiLeaks, one of the most publicized brand names of 2010
What was the biggest story of 2010 in your opinion? Which trademarks from 2010 will have the most lasting power?
