Logo No Go
Not only is it crude and embarrassing, the controversial new $46,000 Tennessee logo doesn’t meet the criteria for a trademark. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the red and blue box with the state’s “TN” abbreviation is too “geographically descriptive.” That means a trademark could grant the holder exclusive rights to design elements that other parties need for general identification and use.
Like the USPTO says in its FAQ, “Under U.S. trademark law, geographic terms or signs are not registrable as trademarks if they are geographically descriptive or geographically misdescriptive of where the goods/services originate. The theory is that other producers in that area would need to be able to use a geographic term to describe where their goods/services are from and that one person should not be able to prevent others from using that term.”
Guns & Money
Media outlets and gun dealers have a special relationship. Every headline about crime sells more guns. Every article about the virtues of guns sells more guns. Every article calling for gun control also sells more guns. At least the Commercial Appeal put its post-Charleston full-page gun ad on page 13.
