The Mouse Rug

It's kind of fun, when you notice something new on an old item. For example, take a look at something I just recently noticed about my Mouse Rug, a rug-style mouse pad that I received as a gift well over a decade ago. [This was, of course, at a time when more people used a computer mouse and unique mouse pads were still something. After all, some of us still relied on the mechanical model that had an actual ball (taking the ball out and then reassembling the mouse so your parents didn't notice was a great way to make them mad).] It now serves as a trivet, and when I was cleaning it after a spill at dinner, I noticed what it said on the back for the first time:

Underside of the tiny rug replica

That's right, patented worldwide! What a claim. And, as your friendly patent and trademark librarian, I had to find out if this claim was true.

New Orleans IP: Chee Wees

It seems I missed a very important variety of cheese curls back when I blogged about them on Cheese Doodle Day. I can only assume it is because I was looking for doodles rather than curls. 

Are you familiar with the New Orleans favorite, Chee Wees? I certainly was not, until our marketing and communications specialist introduced me just a few days ago. And while my first instinct was to burst into laughter when seeing the name, I soon found myself hoping there was hefty IP backing them up.

Library Cat modeling a bag of bar-b-que Chee Wees

Also, before we begin with the more serious stuff, let me warn you: the bar-b-que (weird spelling, y'all) flavor is a little addicting. I meant to just taste them before writing this, to, I dunno, inspire? But ended up having a hard time putting them down long enough to type.

Delicious Chee Wees

Delicious, delicious Chee Wees

First, the most basic of trademark searches reveals two federal registrations, one live and one dead. The dead registration is for the stylized word mark, first registered (no. 0393362) in 1942, but expired back in 1986. 

The registered stylized word mark, no. 0393362

The plain word mark, however, registered in 1958 (no. 0663902), is still active. I expected the stylized words to be registered, but perhaps this is preferable, as it does not mandate any specific appearance.

What exactly were they doing in the four years between application and existence?!

However, the larger potential IP was for the Elmer's brand, and I was very interested in the mascot mouse (or rat, I guess). I found several marks for Elmer's, but was disappointed to see that none of them included the mouse. What an oversight, in my opinion! That mouse is clearly very strongly tied to the brand. 

Trademark registered since 1954

Nonetheless, the stylized word mark was first registered in 1954 (no. 0596874), and a few variations have emerged since. For example, the addition of New Orleans prompted a new registration in 1970 (no. 0894707). However, that one seems limited to candy, unlike the original, which is both candy and cheese curls. 

Good for candy only, since 1970

But wait! Is there more?

We can't ignore the Limited Edition Juvenile collaboration! It features not only New Orleans artist Juvenile but also super hot snacks! [Whether the heat is referring to temperature of cooking alone, or includes the spiciness, I can't tell. And I won't be sharing today, because a bag of cheese curls for lunch should only happen once a day.] Perhaps this version had some hidden IP.

Library Cat is also very interested in these snacks

It turns out, this is one of the cases where I wish it was clearer why the trademark search returned the results it did. I was unable to find anything that seemed directly connected to the specific snack depicted above, but I found enough results to make me wonder about potential connections.

Not a registered mark: "The Big Cheese of New Orleans"

Unfortunately, I could find no patents in a brief search--not that I expected any. Chances are, Elmer's is too small of a firm to either afford the patents or the research to lead to some kind of patentable food product. A design patent is possible, but I still found nothing.

Visit Fondren soon to taste some Chee Wees!

An Entertaining History of Skee-Ball IP

I was watching a video on YouTube recently posted by a man who owns an old fashioned arcade, dedicated to his vintage Skee-Ball games. As you might expect, it got me thinking about Skee-Ball IP. According to this man, it was introduced to the public nearly 100 years ago on the original boardwalk in Atlantic City. I wanted to find the first Skee-Ball patent, if possible.

Usually, I find it is easier to approach IP mysteries from the trademark angle, so I started by looking up Skee-Ball trademarks, of which there were many. I found the primary entity that holds marks for the game is Bay-Tek Entertainment. However, applying that to a patent search wasn't going to be simple, because they did not have any Skee-Ball patents I could find. 

A screenshot of the webpage that claims a 1908 patent

Upon visiting the Bay-Tek Entertainment website and the page dedicated to modern Skee-Ball machines, I found a claim that it was originally patented in 1908. That was a bit of a surprise, because I wasn't finding a lot of documentation prior to 1928 for Skee-Ball patents or trademarks. I returned to the trademark records, and looked more closely at the record of ownership.

First trademark reassignment

Two transfers have occurred since it was first trademarked in 1929 (filed in '28). The first owner was the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. Today, it's Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters, Inc., and it was historically a maker of carousels and really really old-fashioned roller coasters. Like wooden ones. Their about/history page claims they also made Skee-Ball machines, but sold it in 1985, which is accurate. However, that's the entirety of their website's Skee-Ball documentation.

Second trademark reassignment

Furthermore, I couldn't find any patents that belonged to the Philadelphia Toboggan company or named inventors found on their webpages prior to the 1920s. Keyword searches for Skee-Ball or various game descriptions weren't helping.

I emailed Bay-Tek Entertainment and asked if they could provide any documentation to back up their claim, but haven't received an answer. That isn't surprising, I imagine they have better things to do than research patents for their no-longer-patent-protected merchandise. 

So, loyal readers, I have to admit: I cheated and didn't find the original Skee-Ball patent using my amazing searching skills. Well, I did, just not directly. I mentioned Skee-Ball history to a generative AI app I'm testing, and it gave me the inventor's name. If you query Patent Public Search with "Joseph Fourestier Simpson", it returns US Patent 905,941, Game Apparatus. 

I really want to defend myself and claim that I wasn't trying to get the solution from the AI, but it's how I got it, so there's little point in protest. A stupid AI was useful. Ugh. If only I'd thought to look at Wikipedia first or something. 

Anyway, let us enjoy this patent for the original Skee-Ball, which was once built big enough to be more like bowling. 

Drawing of how it was meant to appear

We can also appreciate and enjoy the upgrades that were patented, like this one granted in 1931, US Patent 1,826,964.

Many Skee-Ball patents have been granted over the decades, yet the actual game has fundamentally changed very little. It's still a ramp connected to rings that ends in a bump. It just has more electronic bits and plastic pieces.

The Trademark Olympics!

Like any big sporting association, the international Olympic games own many marks. In fact, there are so many Olympic committees and associations it's almost impossible to do a search for Olympic trademarks. Do I search for something international or just in the US? And who really owns the concept? 

Truly, I had no idea when I started this, and my ignorance of the legal and organizational scope of the Olympics really only became clear as I tried to find official Olympics trademarks.

"But surely," I told myself, "someone must own that interconnected rings symbol or everyone would put all over everything."

Yeah, they do. And apparently it's everyone who has ever participated in an Olympic Games. I truly did not expect to be so overwhelmed by such a seemingly simple search premise. I think it is due to one culprit in particular, too.

Anyway, here are some Olympic symbols and their owners:  

The above-mentioned culprit! Canada's Canadian Olympic Committee went WAY overboard registering  their marks... in Canada. I did not find that they had registered so many in any other jurisdiction. Also, for all of the registrations that I pulled, they claimed every single class. Seriously! Nice classes 1-45 completely. Either CIPO was feeling lenient towards the Canadian Olympic Committee or they have pretty open ideas about classes of goods and services. 

ALL THE CLASSES (except it can only show 33; note the comma)

This particular mark is one of their committee's symbols. It was registered in 1975, and according to the WIPO Global Brand Database, is still live. 

The Canadian Olympic Association logo, since 1975

The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee has many registrations in the USPTO database, but it doesn't have them like Canada. This one is for branding some random souvenirs. Still, it's likely just one of many similar logos that is used for multiple purposes and you've likely seen this past week.

Team USA!

I accidentally closed the window with this information about this registered mark, and given how overwhelmed I've felt about this search, thought I would never find it again. But allow me to introduce you to the image search function in the Global Brand Database sometime.

Both color and grayscale, just in case

It's for the British Olympic Association and covers a handful of expected and (probably also) souvenir-related classes. It doesn't seem to be the main symbology, though; that's a lion or lion head. 

The British were not my first guess when I saw this

The Qatar Olympic Committee is another that has worked hard to cover all potential infringement bases. They've registered this symbol in more countries than you might guess. I did not know the name of the IP office in Zimbabwe before this afternoon, but now I do. In this particular case, the image and the related record is from Tunisia, another IP office I was previously unfamiliar with.

I like how it's the ring colors but people

Finally, here is the recognizable international Olympic Games symbol, from the International Olympic Committee (Comité International Olympique) based in Switzerland. The specific registration is with the EPO.

International registration for international committees!

Enjoy the Olympics while they are still taking place, and we'll revisit this IP again in a few years.

Oak Tree Patents and Patent Center

Did you know that among plant patents are included some very large trees? Once such tree is the mighty oak, many of whom were felled recently by Hurricane Beryl. I decided that made this a good time to check out some patented oaks, and also show how to access their color photos in Patent Center, since that is where all color photos of plant patents now reside.

And, with that, I must ask if you have a MyUSPTO account. It isn't necessary to have one to search Patent Center, but it does give you lots of other advantages, like a home page that you can customize to your interests, and a second option for viewing expanded entries in a trademark search, and if you want to apply for a patent or trademark pro se, it is kind of required.  [I am here, in part, to promote the services of the USPTO; so just deal with the occasional plug!]

A view of my homepage in MyUSPTO

However, as I have learned the hard way, you cannot easily download or view patent images in Patent Center with the wrong internet browser. For example, my default at the office, Firefox. 

And because I don't want to mislead anyone, it is not easy to search using Patent Center. You need to know some kind of concrete number information first, like a publication, patent, application, PCT, or international design registration number. So we have to start with either the University of Maryland Libraries Plant Patent Image Database (only up to a certain point), Patent Public Search, or something like Lens. 

...This is getting complicated. Let's just look at some pretty oak pictures. I'll link you to more info for each.

We're going to focus on live oaks, Quercus fusiformis, because those are one of the most abundant in Houston.  

First, the Texas live oak 'Joan Lionetti' PP27,646. It's a cultivar that clearly is meant for our state. Patented in 2017, it's possible growing around us already.

Texas live oaks are abundant on Rice's campus, I wonder if any are patented?

I also quite like the southern live oak named 'Canon-Sharp', PP19,608 but that may be due in part to the very proud plant parent in the official image. It's hard not to like a tree that has so clearly pleased someone they felt the need to pose with it for a patent.

This person felt it was necessary to pose with the tree, when it really isn't

A live oak named 'SDLN', PP12,015, (they really didn't feel the need to name it anything memorable) has a good growth pattern and very nice natural shape. Oaks are nice.

A very forgettable name but a nice tree nonetheless

The southern live oak named 'CLTF2', PP11,097, does not have as nice of a shape as 'SLDN' in my opinion. However, it does have more interesting leaves, so perhaps that's compensation.

Is it just me, or do you also think this one doesn't have as nice a shape?

There are many more oaks out there that have been patented, but I though a few live oaks was sufficient for one day.