In the early 1900s, Coca-Cola sought to create a new bottle that would stand out amidst its competitors. The winning design came from the Root Glass Company in Terre Haute, Indiana, creating a unique bottle shape inspired by the cocoa pod's shape and vertical ridges.

A shape mark is a type of trade dress consisting of a specific and recognizable shape used to identify a brand. The three-dimensional shape in a shape mark can be applied to a product or its packaging.

Congratulations to the ALCS® champion New York Yankees for advancing to the 2024 World Series®! This week we will be highlighting some World Series related trademark registrations, including those owned by Major League Baseball, the New York Yankees, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Play ball!

Congratulations to the NLCS® champion Los Angeles Dodgers for advancing to the 2025 World Series®! This week we will be highlighting some World Series related trademark registrations, including those owned by Major League Baseball, the New York Yankees, and the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Play ball!

Congratulations to the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers for advancing to the 2024 World Series! This week we will be highlighting some World Series related trademark registrations, including those owned by Major League Baseball, the New York Yankees, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Play ball!

The Owens Corning Pink Color is a significant piece of trademark history – it was the first single color mark ever registered in the United States! Both the color mark, and the word mark PINK®, are registered trademarks still used in connection with insulating materials today.

A color mark is a type of trade dress consisting of a specific color or combination of colors used to identify a brand. The color in a color mark can be applied to a product, its packaging, or to a service.

“Trade dress” refers to the distinctive visual appearance of a product, its packaging, or a service. Trade dress encompasses a wide array of visual elements that create the overall impression of a product, its packaging, or a service, signifying the source of the product or service to consumers and helping to protect the brand identity and market presence.

The color yellow in connection with plastic bats (“Wiffle Bat Yellow”) is a trademark of The Wiffle Ball, Inc. Believe it or not, Wiffle® Ball was originally played with wooden bats. In 1960 the first plastic bat featuring the Wiffle Bat Yellow color was introduced with a smooth handle having black electrical tape wrapped around it.

The Wiffle® brand found its start in 1953 as David Mullany, a retired semipro baseball pitcher, watched his 12-year-old son and a friend play a game in their backyard with a perforated plastic golf ball and a broomstick.

The Samson Rope Logo is a significant piece of trademark history – it is not only the oldest still-active design mark registration in the United States, but also the oldest still-active trademark registration of any kind in the United States.

Design marks consist of design elements like logos, symbols, stylized text, or other graphic elements. A design mark protects the specific appearance of the design, ensuring that others cannot use a similar visual identifier for similar goods or services.

You step up to a Starbucks counter or drive up to a drive-through window, order your coffee and select a size: Tall, Grande, and Venti®. Why the unique size names instead of the common small, medium, and large?

Did you know, the iconic Frappuccino® frozen coffee actually wasn’t created by Starbucks? Frappuccino® frozen coffee was first released by Coffee Connection, a small chain operating in Massachusetts.

The Starbucks cup and logo has changed over the years. The early cups were relatively simple, with the original brown Starbucks logo featuring a twin-tailed siren. The simplicity of the design was reflective of the company’s small-scale operations at the time.

The DOUBLESHOT® ready-to-drink coffee was introduced as part of Starbucks' expansion into ready-to-drink coffee beverages.

In the early 2000s, Starbucks was riding high on its first hit seasonal drink: the Peppermint Mocha. Eager to create a new hit for the fall season, Peter Dukes, leader of the espresso team, gathered with a small group in Starbucks secure research and development lab nicknamed the “Liquid Lab.”

Washburn’s Gold Medal® is a significant piece of trademark history – it is the oldest still-active word mark registration in the United States.

Traditional trademarks are conventional and well-recognized forms of trademarks, including word marks and design marks. Word marks are text-only trademarks consisting solely of words, letters, or numbers without any specific design element.

Registering a trademark is not a simple process, but it is also not as difficult as other legal processes like filing a patent application. In general, there are four major steps during the trademark registration process.