The household products giant Procter & Gamble has really astonished people with its new move. The company has applied to trademark popular text acronyms like ‘LOL’ and ‘WTF’.
If the company is successful in trademarking these words, they intend to market their products such as soaps, detergents, shampoos using these to attract young customers.
The company has sent trademark applications to the US Patent and Trademark Office and now awaits approval. However, The US PTO has asked clarification regarding the applications of these words and P&G has given time until January to respond.
P&G is attempting to trademark acronyms including LOL (Laughing Out Loud)’, WTF (What The F***), NBD (No Big Deal), and FML (F*** My Life).
In Pakistan, Procter & Gamble is well known for its products like Head & Shoulders, Ariel detergent, Pampers, Always, Gillette, Oral-B and more.
via – Profit
Other companies who applied for similar trademarks
Procter & Gamble isn’t the first company to try and trademark well-known terms. Here are a few other examples in the past.
- Walmart once tried to trademark the yellow ‘smiley face’ but failed to get the emoji.
- Facebook has trademarked the word ‘Face’ in reference to telecommunication services.
- Paris Hilton owns the words ‘That’s Hot’.
- Celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe own trademark rights to word ‘Bananas’.
- Disney tried to get a trademark for name Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) but was forced to withdraw the application after 21,000 signatures against it in less than 24 hours from people who got offended.
- Chanel once tried to trademark the word ‘Jersey’ but their application was denied by the UK’s Intellectual Property Office.
via – The Guardian