Snap sues US Patent Office to assert a trademark for ‘Spectacles’ | Engadget

Snapchat creator Snap has sued the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for rejecting an utility the corporate had filed to trademark the phrase “spectacles” in relation to its wearable of the identical title. In a grievance noticed by , Snap claims its utilization of the time period “evokes an incongruity between an 18th-century term for corrective eyewear and Snap’s high-tech 21st-century smart glasses.”

The grievance stems from an ongoing disagreement between Snap and the USPTO over whether or not “spectacles” is a time period that may be utilized to any pair of good glasses. In an the company’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board printed in November, the USPTO mentioned Snap’s use of Spectacles had failed to amass the “distinctiveness” vital for a trademark. “Spectacles is so commonly used to describe the nature of the product or competing products, rather than any particular source of the product(s),” the USPTO mentioned on the time. In suing the USPTO, Snap hopes to overturn the enchantment board’s choice.

Snap first filed for a Spectacles trademark in 2016, the identical yr it launched the first-generation mannequin. Despite a involving , the wearable was a bust for the corporate. At one level, Snap reportedly had accumulating mud in Chinese warehouses. However, even after shedding on the primary model, it went on to launch two new fashions and not too long ago debuted a pair of .

To that finish, Snap claims, due to social media advertising and marketing, phrase of mouth and media protection, shoppers have come to affiliate the phrase “spectacles” with its model, a declare the USPTO disputes. In the identical November opinion, the company wrote Spectacles’ “social media accounts have an underwhelming number of followers, and the number of followers is surprisingly small.”