The Lampster, The Special One and The Berlin Chocolate Wall – Yesterday’s European Trade Mark Filings

A lot of people probably wonder why I trawl through about 450 Trade Mark filings each day, and the sad answer is, I genuinely find it very interesting. As law goes like. But I also do it because you often stumble across some wonderous things that might otherwise escape you. Behold, The Lampster! I saw this logo and trade mark filing filed yesterday and thought ‘what the hell is that’, 2 clicks later and I’m buying one. Click HERE to find out what it is **WARNING** If you are a gadget nerd and/or hipster you are about to spend $149

There is an increasing trend for companies to apply for Trade Marks for constituent parts of their logos. It tends to happen where a product is called one thing in or market and another in another (see Bulmers/Magners for example) but it’s becoming more regular to see things like this being registered, here by Mastercard:

Not sure Jose would be too happy about this. Would have been more amusing last year when Chelsea’s shirts were still sponsored by Samsung. The LG Special One TV:

The Berlin Wall. Bad. The Berlin Chocolate Wall?? Mmmmmmmm, Chocolatey.

Those Motorbike Madmen ‘Masters of Dirt’ have filed an application for their logo for clothes classes
Nothing to do with Adele I’m sure, but I think this is where people start to get really confused about Trade Marks. How can someone Trade Mark the word ‘Hello’ right? Well, it’s complicated. Like, beyond the scope of this post complicated. But I’ll do up a post on it this week and explain!

I think these lads might find themselves getting a letter from the lawyers from Dell who own the ‘alienware’ brand and have it registered in a number of similar classes. I would guess that this wont get registered, and that they will find themselves in the proud possession of a ‘cease and desist’ letter from Dell any day soon saying that this logo and brand infringe’s Dell’s earlier Trade Mark.