Cool News

The iPod Mark

Apple’s initial application in 2006 to win a trademark for its iPod design was summarily rejected by a case examiner at the Patent and Trademark Office. The problem was, Apple had simply submitted a drawing of the iPod and “requested a legal description of the trademark that was so broad it could be taken to refer to any media player.”

Apple eventually overcame the examiner’s objections for a number of reasons. First, it had given its product a unique name and trademarked it. Second, it had “a history of unique product designs,” helping Apple to “make the case that consumers identify the unique design exclusively with the company.”

Third, it invested heavily in advertising to “build the desired association in consumers’ minds by highlighting the product attributes, the company name and little or nothing else.” Fourth, Apple applied for a trademark “for a two-dimensional symbol representing the device and another for a trademark to be used on co-branded products.”

As it turned out, Apple had deliberately applied for a very broad trademark initially to “tease out what the examiner was looking for without making the trademark claim any narrower than was required.”

The best part is, Apple’s trademark on the iPod shape “can remain in force potentially forever … unlike more commonly used utility and design patents” which “expire after a set number of years.”

[David Orozco and James Conley, The Wall Street Journal, 5/12/08]

Sierra Clorox

Green marketing can make strange bedfellows, at least in the case of Clorox and the Sierra Club. Sierra Club’s executive director, Carl Pope, certainly was skeptical when approached by Clorox about co-branding a new cleaning product called Green Works.

But he soon saw the potential in it: “One of the reasons green home cleaning products haven’t achieved much market penetration is if they came from an environmental brand, people had the sense they won’t work … And if it came from someone with a cleaning reputation the reaction was: They can’t be green.”

And so, starting in April, the Green Works brand was emblazoned with both the Clorox and Sierra Club logos. For Sierra Club, it was the 116-year-old organization’s first foray into product endorsements, for which it “will receive an undisclosed portion of the proceeds.”

None of this is without its controversy, admits Carl, who acknowledges that the ethanol in the product “might be made with genetically engineered corn.” But he says that’s okay, noting: “There aren’t any products without any environmental consequences.” Greenpeace says it’s “agnostic” about Green Works, while Clorox says it is getting enthusiastic responses from “Wal-Mart and other retailers.”

[Felicity Barringer, The New York Times, 3/26/08]

Empire Art-Deco

The $500 million renovation of New York’s Empire State Building includes Art Deco-style uniforms for the building’s security guards. The new uniforms replace the “plain polo shirts and slacks” that the guards previously wore.

To come up with the design, Jennifer L. Busch of the I. Buss Uniform Company “scoured old photographs to find a look that was in style when the Empire State Building was new.” It didn’t take her long to decide to go with an Art Deco look. Among other things, this means that the jacket sleeves “bear chevrons” which is classic Art Deco.

The jacket itself is “Empire State Burgundy,” which matches “the building’s marble corridors.” The neckties also feature a “special logo — the building against a starburst pattern, also an Art Deco touch.”

Jennifer even custom-designed the lettering used on the uniform’s hats, which “will also be used on signs for stores in the building” as “approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission because the building is a city landmark.”

“I love that they’re doing this more formal look,” says Jennifer. “They were in polo shirts,” she says. “That’s not a uniform.”

[James Barron, The New York Times, 5/26/08]

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