On the advice of one of my very wise friends, I decided to mix things up a bit today, and take a look at some of the many trademarks that have been filed this month with the US Patent and Trademark office.
Searching the database is kind of a way of life for those of us who like to practice in this field, so this will help me get some practice in, as well as get some interesting information about who is attempting to protect what right now.
A total of 16706 trademarks were filed in January, at least through the end of the day on Friday. There were 4057 trademark applications filed this month in either class 41 or 9. Class 41 is the “educational or entertainment” services, while 9 covers computer hardware. Of those, 538 used the words “game” or “gaming” as part of the description of goods or services they offered, while 775 purported to be “online” in some fashion. Looking a bit past the obvious, there were 103 trademarks filed this month that were only designs. That means there was no words or symbols that were discernible, and that the whole trademark was a picture.
Looking a bit deeper, the great and powerful Microsoft filed three trademarks last month, while Nintendo filed 16, and 67 were filed by assorted companies with some variation of “game” in their corporate nomenclature. Keep in mind that each trademark application costs around $300 per class of goods (you can file one application that uses several classes) so it’s a good indication that the gaming industry is thriving. By contrast there were only 107 applications for legal goods or services last month. Kind of makes you think a bit, yeah?
