Branding & Trademark Project 1, Part 1: create proposed marks

Background. 

In this class, we have a fictional law firm: Thomas, Thomas, and Thomas, PLLP, or “Pretend Limited Liability Partnership.”  (Also known as T-Cubed.)  There are no real clients and no real adverse parties. This project is preliminary to your later work learning how to search, register, and enforce trademarks.

Short description of assignment.

For the first part of this Project, you are the client. Invent four (4) trademarks or service marks. These will be used in the class by your classmates later in the semester. Do a good job as your classmates will be relying upon you to select interesting and useful marks!

Work product requested.

Four word marks. 

Create four (4) proposed trademarks or service marks for your client Acme, Inc., a fictional business in Dania Beach. No logos, no designs, no sounds, no smells. Only word marks will be permitted.

Goods and services for each mark. 

You should also select goods and/or services for each of your four (4) proposed marks. They should be phrased as how a layperson would phrase them. You should not worry at this point about trademark “classes” or the proper wording required by the USPTO. Instead, think of how a client might describe their planned goods or services. I will be scoring this, so remember that spelling, grammar, and organization always matter.

Format for work product

Write up your four (4) proposed word marks, along with the goods and/or services, and paste them in text format into the relevant page on Canvas in the text box. Your work must be your own. Upload them using the text box at the Canvas link found on the Assignments page for the assigned due date. You must be registered for the course and logged into Canvas for the link to work.

Due date and time

See the Assignments page for the due date and time. You must complete the assignment on time even if you are not planning on attending class that day.

Caveats & warnings: these are important, so read them carefully.

No searching before selecting marks. 

Do not conduct any searching prior to selecting your mark. Let’s make this like the real world where the client comes to you with a mark. Maybe the mark will be registrable, maybe it won’t. We’ll address searching and registrability later in the course. For now, just focus on coming up with realistic marks.

The types of marks you should (and should not) submit. 

Although there are multiple types of marks and devices, you should only submit plausible typed marks.

• Typed marks only. Your mark must be a typed (i.e., word) mark and not a stylized mark or design. Do not create sound marks, logos, or color marks.
• Trademarks or service marks only. Create either trademarks or service marks. Do not create collective marks, certification marks, or trade names.
• Plausible marks only. Your mark must be a plausible one, a mark that might reasonably be used in the real world. So do not create a mark that is nonsensical (such as XZZMQ@17 or ZRGGHAXLY). Instead, choose marks that sound plausible.
• Mixture of marks and goods/services. I would suggest that each mark have different goods or services.

Prohibition on real-world marks, actual or planned. 

Do not select any real-world marks, either current or planned. Do not select any mark that you know or believe is being used or might be used by any person or business, whether yourself or any other person or entity. I will enforce this prohibition strictly. There are several reasons for this prohibition.

• First, to protect you and your classmates. I want you to avoid the unlicensed practice of law.
• Second, to protect me. I will be giving students feedback on marks through the semester, so you should not make me an unwitting participant in your provision of legal advice to yourself or to others.
• Third, to avoid clouding your or your classmates’ perspectives. I want thinking to be unclouded by actual real-world stakes: if a mark is something that matters to you (for example, you hope to use it someday for a business), or to one of your classmates (your “client”), this may cloud your or your classmates’ thinking and lessen the effectiveness of everybody’s learning. Cf. Starfleet Reg. No. 619.

I take this rule extremely seriously. Consequences for the violation of the no-real-world-mark rule may include lowering of the score on your first project, your overall grade, and referral to the academic integrity committee.

Revised Aug. 28, 2023