McCain Winning '08 Presidential Trademark Race

The presidential race is heating up and with any flurry of political activity comes an influx of trademarks hoping to capitalize on the nation's interest.

John McCain 2008 - The Exploratory Committee currently has two Federal trademarks, one registered & one pending, for "McCain Space" and "McCain." These applications were filed in January 2007 for, among other things, "promoting the public awareness of a candidate for election." A month later, Senator McCain announced on Late Show with David Letterman that he was seeking the nomination. It appears the trademarks were a harbinger of things to come.

Senator Clinton has been in the news recently about her use of "Solutions for America," which is a trademarked phrase owned by the University of Richmond. According to an article by Scott Jacshik of Inside Higher Ed, the university has "refused to answer any question about why the institution’s trademarked slogan was being used by the Clinton campaign and whether she had permission to do so."

Obama for America does have a pending Federal trademark for the logo associated with Senator Obama's campaign. The 9 different classes include such varied goods/services as golf balls, clothing, lapel pins, water bottles, fundraising, etc.

There are a number of sadly rejected trademark applications using some variation of a candidate's name. The refusals from the USPTO were "because the mark consists of or comprises matter which may falsely suggest a connection with the individual [candidate's name]."

Some examples of dead trademarks include "No Drama with Obama," "Hillary Clinton is Politically Incorrect" and "Bearack Obama."

Easily the most interesting, albeit confusing, is the filing for 08AMA for items like posters, campaign buttons, shirts, etc. What's puzzling is that the applicant does not seem to be affiliated with the Senator Obama campaign but rather is owned by FTK, a clothing store in Fresno, CA. The USPTO did question the applicant about the letters AMA, in particular if there was any significance as it pertained to the industry and/or goods listed on the application. The applicant responded that no significance existed, which the USPTO accepted. 08AMA is poised to become a Federally registered trademark.

One More Democratic Candidate Trademark Filing

Picking up where we left off from , let's take a look at trademark filings that are using the names of the other Democratic candidates.

One problem...

The only other one I could find is for John Edwards & this mark IS connected with Senator Edwards:

John Edwards President, Serial Number 78291084.

On February 8th of this year, the USPTO sent an Office Action to the Attorney of Record. And, I've got to say, this is the first time I've ever seen something like this:

"The application had been misplaced; on behalf of the Office, the examining attorney apologizes for any inconvenience this delay may have caused."

On September 17th, CNN & YouTube will be hosting the Republican debates. I'll visit this topic again for those folks.

Read more about the trademark application process here.

Looking at the Democratic Candidates Through a Trademark Lens

I, like many others, watched The CNN YouTube Debates last night & I thought it'd be interesting to see what kind of registered/pending trademarks are out there using the names of the Democratic candidates.

Let's start with the two candidates that we seem to hear about the most.

Barack Obama:

These are, from what I can tell, NOT affiliated with Obama or his campaign.

I Back Barack, Serial Number 77035991 & applied for by James R McDonald.

Mr McDonald was sent a refusal citing "Registration is refused because the proposed mark consists of or comprises matter which may falsely suggest a connection with U.S. Senator Barack Obama. Although not connected with the services applicant intends to provide under the proposed mark, the name BARACK is so famous that consumers would presume a connection with Senator Obama."

No Drama with Obama, Serial Number 77153329 & applied for by Sylvia Quarles

On May 10th of this year, Quarles received "The examining attorney refuses registration because the mark consists of or comprises matter which may falsely suggest a connection with the individual Barack Obama."

Seeing a trend here?

Hillary Clinton

These mark is, from what I can tell, NOT affiliated with Clinton or her campaign.

Statue of Hillary, Serial Number 76163132 & applied for by DareCloud Development Inc. This mark was filed for the sale of "figurine statues of the Statue of Liberty with the likeness of Hillary Clinton."

This application is abandoned & while the materials are not available online since the mark is so old, I have a pretty good guess as to why this mark never made it to registration.

Interestingly enough, I also came across a trademark filing that Clinton filed for the Heifer Project International for Good Neighbor to the World when she was a partner at the Rose Law Firm.

Read more about the other types of refusals the USPTO can hand down.