Looking at the Democratic Candidates Through a Trademark Lens
I, like many others, watched The CNN YouTube Debates last night & I thought it'd be interesting to see what kind of registered/pending trademarks are out there using the names of the Democratic candidates.
Let's start with the two candidates that we seem to hear about the most.
Barack Obama:
These are, from what I can tell, NOT affiliated with Obama or his campaign.
I Back Barack, Serial Number 77035991 & applied for by James R McDonald.
Mr McDonald was sent a refusal citing "Registration is refused because the proposed mark consists of or comprises matter which may falsely suggest a connection with U.S. Senator Barack Obama. Although not connected with the services applicant intends to provide under the proposed mark, the name BARACK is so famous that consumers would presume a connection with Senator Obama."
No Drama with Obama, Serial Number 77153329 & applied for by Sylvia Quarles
On May 10th of this year, Quarles received "The examining attorney refuses registration because the mark consists of or comprises matter which may falsely suggest a connection with the individual Barack Obama."
Seeing a trend here?
Hillary Clinton
These mark is, from what I can tell, NOT affiliated with Clinton or her campaign.
Statue of Hillary, Serial Number 76163132 & applied for by DareCloud Development Inc. This mark was filed for the sale of "figurine statues of the Statue of Liberty with the likeness of Hillary Clinton."
This application is abandoned & while the materials are not available online since the mark is so old, I have a pretty good guess as to why this mark never made it to registration.
Interestingly enough, I also came across a trademark filing that Clinton filed for the Heifer Project International for Good Neighbor to the World when she was a partner at the Rose Law Firm.
Read more about the other types of refusals the USPTO can hand down.
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