What links American business icons Harley Davidson and Apple? For an answer to this question look no further than Apple trademark applications 011399821/862. This week the EU Patent and Trademark office published the two trademark applications for “Lightning.”
Trademark filings usually don’t make for light reading. These applications, however, link two icons of American business and lend some clues to the future. Apple is using the term for its new “Lightning” charger, the new charger and connector for its iPhone 5. The trademarks had belonged to a lined of motorcycles once produced by Harley-Davidson owned Buell Motorcycle Company.
Apple insists the eight prong connector, which costs Apple users $30, is a necessary hardware upgrade. The merits of this assertion have been discussed on social media, but it’s a tribute to the brand that consumers have not rebelled. They have just grumbled a little and reached into their wallets.
There has been discussion on social media, however, on whether the brand has lost some of its luster since the passing of Steve Jobs. Does the iPad have what it takes to stand out in an increasingly crowded tablet market? What about the missteps and firings around Apple Maps?
Circle back to that trademark application. Apple’s purchase of the Lightning trademark also protects “television sets, games, computer game programs, eye glasses and eyeglass frames.” This has led CNNMoney to ask, “Could Apple be planning an iTV, or glasses that include the Lightning connector?” The HuffPost asks, tongue partly in cheek, whether a co-branded Apple/Harley bike could be far off?
What’s a Twitter follower worth?
In her most recent blog on Pinterest, Kyle-Beth Hilfer, Of Counsel to Collen IP, writes of the continuing copyright challenges posed by social media sharing site Pinterest. The bottom line, according to Hilfer is that, “[I]f you are going to put up content on Pinterest, get used to it being there for the duration and out of your control.” Pinterest’s new Terms of Service do offer some comfort to artists that the site is not out to hijack their work, but once it’s up there and re-pinned it’s going to be very difficult, if not impossible to remove it. The bottom lines is that Pinterest seems to be carving out its own Fair Use exception. Whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen. At present, it’s untested.
A proposed Virginia bill that would have enabled bars and restaurants to advertise drink specials and happy hours on social media has been withdrawn as too controversial. A law, in effect since the 1980′s, effectively prohibits restaurants and bars from advertising happy hours and drink specials outside their establishments or on electronic media. According to the bill’s sponsor, David Albo, “The bill would not have allowed anyone to promote anything. It merely would allow a restaurant to put its happy hour specials on its own website. That website may be a Facebook site or a regular website.” Concern about underage drinking led Albo to withdraw the bill from consideration.
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The importance of trademarks cannot be underestimated in the Age of the Internet, and trademark wars are becoming more frequent – and more contentious. Easily understood product names, closely connected to common search terms, can be worth millions.
