Katy Perry's performance during halftime at this year's Super Bowl is still reverberating at the U.S. Trademark Office. On Friday, the pop singer got bad news that her company's initial attempts to register a "Left Shark" design had been rejected.
Dancing with two background dancers dressed as sharks, Perry had social media buzzing during her performance. Many were talking about the one on the left — actually, Perry's right — who seemed to be non-conforming to the choreography.
David Collier, the examiner, isn't yet impressed by the attempt to register the design.
Looking at the application, he writes the design "identifies only a particular character; it does not function as a service mark to identify and distinguish applicant’s services from those of others and to indicate the source of applicant’s services."
In other words, there's not enough evidence submitted yet that consumers look at "Left Shark" and think a Katy Perry music performance.
The examiner finds another fault by looking at a submitted picture of Perry dancing with "Left Shark" and the drawing of "Left Shark" submitted as the design.
"Specifically, the specimen displays the mark as a stylized depiction of a forward leaning shark in nearly a front profile with a portion of a dorsal fin, two pectoral fins and two legs and feet substituted for the caudal fin on the tail," he writes. "The shark has five gills, a full mouth with teeth and round eyes with eyelids; however, the drawing displays the mark as a stylized depiction of an upright shark in full front profile with no dorsal fin, two full pectoral fins and two legs and feet; the shark has three gills and the sharks mouth appears without teeth; the shark also has oval eyes without eyelids."
Perry can try again, but at least she's had more luck on the registration of the word mark, "Left Shark." The examiner asks for a bit more clarification on the identity of goods she's attempting to assert dominion. For example, Perry's company says "costumes," but does she mean Halloween costumes or dance costumes? She says "figurines," but can she be more specific like saying "modeled plastic toy figurines"? But overall, she's on the way to having the registration published for potential opposition by others.
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#LeftSharkForALL
@ the usual pathetiques running in!