United States Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO) has stalled the trademark application for Google Glass. Though Google was able to make a reservation for the term last year, a report by The Wall Street Journal says that the USPTO has objected to the term GLASS.
The USPTO has stated two reasons for not granting the application of the tech giant. Firstly, there are already registered software trademarks with the word Glass. So, granting Google’s application will confuse consumers and there could also be confusions among companies regarding the use of trademarks in future.
Secondly, the word Glass is too descriptive of the product and there are no provisions in the US federal law that support the issuance of such trademarks.
The USPTO has sent a long letter running 1,928 pages to the US government explaining why the issuance of trademark is withheld for which Google’s advocates have replied with a document comprising 1900 pages.
Google’s explanation for it includes the argument that the product is not made of glass and hence it can’t be a descriptive word. It also further states that Google doesn’t want to promote the message that the product will render the functionality of smart glasses which qualifies the application in every aspect as required by the law.
With so much hype already built around this wearable technology, it is expected that Google will not settle for any other term. While Google doesn’t necessarily have to get this application granted in order to use this name for Google Glass, they may have problems with trademark infringements in future which is why Google is facing this head-on.
As of now, Google is waiting for the USPTO’s response to the explanation Google has sent.
