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An iconic hotel shaped like a guitar can be registered in the US as a three-dimensional trademark, despite initially being rejected as non-distinctive. The case proves that a striking design doesn’t guarantee trademark rights for building shapes, discovers Sarah Speight.
A giant guitar-shaped hotel has been given the green light to be registered as a trademark due to its “unique” design, despite initially being rejected as non-distinctive.
The Guitar Hotel is owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, a federally recognised Indian tribe that has existed in Florida for thousands of years and is involved in a number of business enterprises, including the Hard Rock Cafe franchise.
The Tribe opened its first Guitar Hotel in 2019 in Los Angeles as part of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood—which it described at the time as the world’s first and only hotel of its kind.
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trademarks, US Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, TTAB, Guitar Hotel, Seminole Tribe of Florida