Tag Archives: Trademark

US Trademark Office says the “mini” in iPad mini is “merely descriptive”

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Full-size iPad on the left, iPad mini on the right.
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica

Apple’s application for the “iPad mini” trademark must be more descriptive if the US Patent and Trademark Office is going to approve it. A document from the USPTO surfaced online over the weekend, indicating that the office was unlikely to give Apple the trademark based on its initial description. Although some have interpreted the letter as an outright rejection, the USPTO’s response offers Apple options for modifying its application—as long as it offers a disclaimer on “mini.”

The USPTO’s letter to Apple is dated January 24 but was only just made public. In it, the organization notes that while “iPad” is descriptive when applied to Apple’s goods—the “i” because it’s understood by the public to refer to the Internet, while “pad” is connected with tablet computers. “Mini,” on the other hand, is the word that the USPTO takes issue with. Because “mini” is usually applied to something that’s just smaller than usual, the USPTO considers the word “merely descriptive” and doesn’t want to award Apple exclusive use as part of the trademark.

Because of the problem with “mini,” the USPTO is hesitant to move forward since the trademark could easily be confused with Apple’s other, existing trademark for “iPad.” That said, Apple now has the option to amend its application to include a disclaimer on the word “mini” and to explain why it needs a separate trademark for “iPad mini” in addition to “iPad.” Apple was given a six month deadline from the original letter to submit a modified application, meaning it now has until July 24 to rework it and resubmit.

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Report: US Patent And Trademark Office Denies Apple’s iPad Mini Trademark Application, Deemed “Merely Descriptive”

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ipad-with-ipad-mini

Right after it launched the iPad mini, Apple filed a trademark application for the name with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). As Patently Apple noticed earlier today, however, the USPTO will likely refuse Apple’s trademark filing because, the reviewer argues, “the applied-for mark merely describes a feature or characteristic of applicant’s goods.”

The letter was mailed to Apple on January 24, but only made public in the last few days. Apple can still respond to this notice and correct its application, though it’s hard to see how Apple could argue against the USPTO’s argument that ‘mini’ is ‘merely descriptive.’

“The applied-for mark merely describes a feature or characteristic of applicant’s goods.”

The word ‘mini,’ the reviewer argues, just describes that the iPad mini is indeed “a small sized handheld tablet computer” and just describes the mini’s features. It is not, the reviewing attorney says, “a unitary mark with a unique, incongruous, or otherwise nondescriptive meaning in relation to the goods and/or services.” The USPTO would only grant Apple the trademark to the full iPad mini name if the company could show that the word ‘mini’ has now acquired a “distinctiveness.”

In addition, Patently Apple also notes, the reviewer also denied the application for now because Apple should have provided the USPTO with a specimen other than its own product website, even though Apple always uses these for its trademark applications and this was never a reason for a denial before.

The reviewer also believes that there is a “likelihood of confusion” between Apple’s existing iPad trademarks and this new iPad® mini application, which, to be honest, doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Here is the letter the USPTO sent to Apple in January:

USPTO Refuses Apple’s iPad mini Trademark Application



GoPro can fall from planes with no parachute, can’t get copyright law

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GoPro is a company that sells cameras geared towards extreme circumstances, like mountain biking, whitewater kayaking (both featured in the video on their website), and even falling out of airplanes or swimming with dolphins.

Another thing GoPro apparently wants to get extreme about is deleting reviews they don’t like.

A GoPro “brand manager” has sent a DMCA takedown notice to DigitalRev, a photography shopping and discussion site. The review, titled “GOPRO Hero 3 vs SONY HDR-AS15—Which Action Camera should you get?” isn’t up anymore. Instead, it has been replaced with a letter from GoPro.

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Python wins trademark dispute, rival stops calling itself “Python”

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The Python Software Foundation recently went public with a battle against a company in Europe that was trying to claim a trademark over the name used for more than two decades by one of the world’s most popular programming languages.

Just a little over a month later, the Python Software Foundation has won the dispute. The other company, PO Box Hosting, was offering cloud server and backup services under the name Python. PO Box Hosting was also seeking a figure trademark over a logo with the word “Python” in it. The Python Software Foundation has a registered trademark in the US, but it did not get one in Europe for financial reasons. However, trademarks can be asserted based on use and recognition of a name, even if it’s not registered with a trademark office.

The Python Software Foundation initially said PO Box Hosting “blew us off,” but PO Box changed its tune once the foundation opposed PO Box’s trademark application and rallied users of Python to provide evidence that the word “Python” is associated with the programming language.

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Judge slashes Apple’s court win against Samsung by $450 million

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The jury that awarded a massive $1.05 billion in damages to Apple used flawed damages theories for half the products that were found to infringe Apple’s trademarks and patents, a judge ruled today (PDF).

The ruling by US District Judge Lucy Koh removes some of the sting from the giant verdict, which would have been the largest patent verdict in history if it had stood. Of the 28 infringing products, Koh has ordered a new damages trial to be held on 14 of them “[b]ecause the Court has identified an impermissible legal theory on which the jury based its award and cannot reasonably calculate the amount of excess.”

The jury’s damage findings on 14 other products holds. The damages total for those products is $599 million. Koh has asked for the new damages trial to take place after the whole case goes up on appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the nation’s top patent court. Koh will also add supplemental damages to the verdict to account for sales of infringing products that took place after the verdict was issued; this, too, will wait for the appeal to finish.

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Judge tells Apple and Samsung to narrow their new patent case

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Apple won a $1.05 billion verdict against Samsung last year, and it’s now up on appeal. But at this point, that lawsuit covers the previous generation of phones, like Apple’s iPhone 4 and Samsung’s Galaxy S II. A newer lawsuit over patents, including Apple’s search-related patents, was filed in 2012. That case covers newer phones like the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III. 

That case is being litigated under the oversight of US District Judge Lucy Koh, the same San Jose judge who presided over last summer’s blockbuster trial.

At a hearing yesterday, Koh expressed frustration at both sides’ overbroad accusations against each other in the new lawsuit. She insisted that the warring smartphone giants limit their cases to 25 patent claims each, and no more than 25 allegedly infringing products, according to a Reuters report on the hearing.

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Python v. Python: Software foundation fights for trademark in EU

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The Python programming language has been around for more than two decades, but today it is fighting for its name in Europe. The Python Software Foundation’s chairman yesterday said the Python trademark is “at risk in Europe” because a cloud server and storage company that also uses the name Python is trying to get ownership of the mark.

In a blog post, Foundation Chairman Van Lindberg (who is also an IP and open source lawyer) asked community members for help, both financially and by supplying material that might help the Foundation bolster its claim to the trademark.

The Python Software Foundation has had a US trademark registered since 2004, but in the European Union the foundation’s trademark application was only filed this month, on February 6. The application seeks a trademark over “computer programs that implement an object-oriented computer programming language,” and is listed by the patent office as “under examination.”

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Brazil says “iphone” trademark doesn’t belong to Apple; Apple pushes back

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Apple is fighting back against its Brazilian trademark loss over the “iphone” name. The company filed an appeal following Wednesday’s decision by Brazil’s copyright office, the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), which awarded the “iphone” trademark to a company named Gradiente Eletronica SA. As noted by Reuters, Gradiente now has 60 days to prove that it has been using the trademark; otherwise it may be handed back to Apple.

Gradiente is an electronics maker that filed for the iPhone trademark in Brazil in 2000 but did not use it for years. The company’s trademark application was approved in 2008, a year after Apple launched its iPhone—Gradiente restructured and formed IGB Electronica SA, which eventually launched its own line of “iPhones” in December of 2012.

INPI handed Gradiente a win in the trademark dispute earlier this week, undoubtedly due to its early filing on the iPhone trademark. But Apple wants it back and has challenged the decision. Now, Gradiente has to prove that it actually did make use of the trademark between 2008 and 2013 or it risks losing “iphone” back to Apple.

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