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It’s that time of the year, the short period when Girl Scouts sell their cookies! I’ve been a fan of them since I sold them door-to-door as a child. As I was indulging last night, I found myself wondering the same thing I’m sure most of you do, too: What intellectual property types apply to Girl Scout cookies? So, I thought we could take a look at some tasty trademarks.
My two favorites—again, something I believe many may agree with—have long been Thin Mints® and Caramel deLites®.
I searched the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) free-form for Thin Mints, “thin mints”[BI]. BI is Basic Index, and searches for all indexed word mark and pseudo mark information (Image 1).
Apparently, there are 13 filed marks for the exact word combination “Thin Mints”, and four belong to the Girl Scouts. One is for the cookies; the other three are for Thin Mints-flavored tea and ice cream, and a terminated program to send cookies to armed forces personnel. The mark is registered for the words, with no claims to style/font, size, or color. Thin Mints cookies have a long history. The name was first used commercially in March, 1959, but the most recent registration renewal was this January (2022). Download the PDF of the trademark status here.
Searching Caramel deLites trademarks was very different. I struggled to create a search that delivered a results list of a reasonable length. Using caramel delites[BI] gave 9,378; caramel delites[MN] (MN index contains text for word marks, non-punctuated) only decreased to 9,347; and caramel delites[MP] (MP field is the word mark, punctuation included) had little difference at 9,345. I was hesitant to enclose the phrase in quotation marks, but wanted the whole phrase in the word mark. I settled for caramel[BI] AND delites[BI], and got just one result (Image 2).
The trademark registration information surprised me; I was looking for marks owned by Girl Scouts. Caramel deLites cookies are licensed to Girl Scouts by a bakery based in Canada. WF Bakery Inc. owns the mark. Download the PDF of the trademark status here.
Also, I recall the same cookies called Samoas from when I was little. There are two different suppliers for Girl Scout cookies, and both make this type. The Samoas word mark is owned by Murray Bakery Products, Inc. DBA Little Brownie Bakers Corporation. Download the PDF of the trademark status here.
Both of these are significantly newer than Thin Mints. Samoas were first commercially used in Novermber, 1974; Caramel deLites were first commercially used in 1984.
I wonder if there are any registrations for the cookies’ appearance…