‘I Survived Corona’: the TM filings cashing in on a pandemic
As the world struggles to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, the trademark registers have seen a spree of opportunistic filings related to the disease and its impact on our lives.
This doesn’t come as any great surprise, but what are the motivations? Is it pure hucksterism, or more a lack of understanding of how trademarks work?
Many weak applications based around terms like ‘coronavirus’ will likely prove to be a waste of money. But filings that relate in some way to the coronavirus aren’t necessarily all doomed to fall at the first hurdle. In many countries, much of the only economic activity that’s been allowed to continue is directed towards fighting the virus, and all aspects of society are conditioned by it in some way.
Garage Goals, a US website which sells various motoring apparel, has filed for a logo featuring the slogan: “Warning My Ride Is Sicker Than The Coronavirus”. It’s already adorning t-shirts that are available to buy now.
These kinds of filings appear ultimately harmless, albeit in poor taste, given the severity of the situation. Others, though, carry a darker message. One filing in the US foreshadows caps bearing the phrase “Coronavirus: Made in China”.
Many filings imagine a brighter future when all of this is over. Applications in the US, New Zealand, and Spain cover variations on phrases like “I survived the coronavirus of 2020”.
'Not worth the trouble'
As Rosie Burbidge, partner at Gunnercooke in London, tells WIPR, “a lot of people are just eager to jump on the bandwagon”. Some may even be genuinely attempting to build a brand. Burbidge, who specialises in the fashion industry, doesn’t see much worth in the bandwagon as a trademark strategy though.
“Anyone can make a shirt that says ‘I survived COVID-19’,” she says, adding: “I think people often have a very inflated sense of what a trademark is going to be worth.”
Marks such as those are largely detrimental to the applicant, she says, who appear set to waste their money.
These types of filings aren’t “hugely problematic or dangerous,” she says, but more concerning from an ethical perspective, are those that appear to be the basis of profiteering lawsuits at some point in the future.
This is especially true of any surreptitious applications covering medical devices or pharmaceutical goods. Brand awareness of that nature, Burbidge says, would be better off going to the companies making such products.
Tokyo 2020 or 2021: trouble ahead?
The UK and US registers are already home to numerous filings covering terms like ‘social distancing’, ‘Keep Calm and Corona On’, or ‘Covid Wars’.
But the pandemic, as we know, has far-reaching implications beyond the immediate emergency. That can be seen on the register too—an individual in London has looked to take advantage of an entire summer of blockbuster sport being pushed to next year by filing for ‘Tokyo 2021’ and ‘Euros 2021’.
Notably, the sportswear apparel brand Puma has done something similar. The German company has filed to register the marks ‘Puma Tokyo 2021’, ‘Puma Euro 2021’, and ‘Puma Cup 2021’.
As it stands, both the Tokyo Olympics and UEFA European Championships are set to retain their original ‘2020’ branding, so it’s not known yet whether these filings were authorised by the International Olympic Committee or UEFA. WIPR has contacted Puma to find out more.
What else do the trademark registers tell us about efforts to commercialise the crisis? Firstly, the US has been by far the busiest. A scan of the World Intellectual Property Organization reveals 41 filings containing the term ‘coronavirus’, of which 28 were filed in the US. Six filings have come from Spain, another country suffering greatly from the virus.
In China, where the virus first emerged and claimed more than 3,000 lives, the Chinese National Intellectual Property Administration has been quick to reject trademark filings related to the virus, noted Fred Rocafort of Harris Bricken on the firm’s China Law Blog.
Ultimately, the trademark registers are an interesting snapshot of humanity’s various responses to the pandemic. Some are, to be charitable, ‘entrepreneurial’, while others optimistically predict that this will be over soon. Unfortunately, a small proportion suggest much nastier motivations.
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