Monday, August 23, 2004

Fun with Trademarks

In today's Lying in the Gutters, Rich Johnston ponders about the possible conflict between the UK tv series Spaced, reportedly coming soon in the US to Bravo, and a Platinum Studios tv project/Top Cow comic of the same name. He asks for someone to sort it out, so I'll oblige.

A quick search of the Trademark Electronic Search System (Tess) shows that no one in the US has a registered trademark on "Spaced" (though there are a few for "Spaced Out"). Now while it is not uncommon for comic books not to bother with the time and expense of registering a trademark (and utilize an unregistered mark), I would think that if you're going to the expense of making a television series, you would want the added protection that a registered mark provides.

So, first one to register wins!

(I should note that It is possible, though unlikely, that the USPTO is refusing to accept any trademark on the word.)

1 comment:

Jon Silpayamanant said...

Words might be a bit problematic for trademarking purposes, unless some sort of design or special font were to go along with it...but who really knows...