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Apple Denied Trademark For 'Multi-Touch'

Posted by Soulskill on from the have-to-settle-for-imultitouch dept.

suraj.sun sends this excerpt from MacRumors: "In a decision handed down by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Apple has been denied an application for a trademark on Multi-Touch. ... For trademarks, 'the greater the degree of descriptiveness the term has, the heavier the burden to prove it has attained secondary meaning.' The trademark attorney pointed out that the term 'multitouch' has taken on generic meaning, being used by a wide variety of publications to describe the touchscreen technology on Android phones, tablets, and notebooks."

5 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Secondary Meaning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Paul Reubens already has the trademark on a secondary meaning for "multi-touch"

    1. Re:Secondary Meaning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Damn, you beat me to the punchline, I was going to say the Catholic church had prior art.

  2. multi-touch? by nopainogain · · Score: 0, Funny

    my catholic school had a priest with a trademark for something like that.

  3. Re:Good News by dgatwood · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm really hoping for a pony. And unicorns. Just saying.

    --

    Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  4. Re:Legal idiocy by plover · · Score: 2, Funny

    The Apple trademark lawyers in this instance were either very stupid, very lazy, or very self-interested. ;)

    Would you settle for "very rich"?

    Actually, that's what sets you apart from them. They wouldn't settle for merely "very rich", which is why they're now "filthy rich".

    --
    John