The Trademark Office has issued a non-final rejection to Twitter’s application to register its Tweet mark as a trademark. The rejection is based on the Trademark Office’s examining attorney’s findings that there are three prior pending trademark applications for similar marks that the examining attorney believes may cause a likelihood of confusion with Twitter’s Tweet mark. The prior pending applications include the marks TweetMarks, COTWEET, and tweetPhoto, all owned by different parties. Twitter has until January 1, 2010 to file a response to the Office Action. In its response, Twitter will have to set forth reasons why it believes its Tweet mark should be granted registration despite the prior pending applications. If the examining attorney does not agree with Twitter’s arguments as to any one of those prior pending applications, Twitter may have to wait and see what the outcomes are of the three prior pending trademark applications. If one or all of those prior pending applications are denied registration, Twitter’s road to registration will be that much easier.
Interestingly (and likely to be used as part of Twitter’s response), the third prior pending application, tweetPhoto, owned by Sean Thomas Callahan, according to both the trademark application and a press release, is intended to be used to share photos on … you guessed it … Twitter.
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