Maker of famous ‘flying’ guitar shape wins three-year dispute
01-08-2022
Gibson and Armadillo guitar trademark case to play out
01-02-2021
YES Market Media / Shutterstock.com
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.
The rest of this article is locked for subscribers only. Please login to continue reading.
If you don't have a login, you will need to purchase a subscription to gain access to this article, including all our online content. Please use this link and follow the steps.
For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription to us that we can add you to for FREE, please email Atif Choudhury at achoudhury@worldipreview.com
trademarks, US Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, TTAB, Guitar Hotel, Seminole Tribe of Florida
