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Trademarks
July 15th, 2010 § 0
A simple Facebook update from a friend sparked an investigation this afternoon. She mentioned working at Brueggers, which reminded me of their square bagels. I call them squagels because it’s an obvious and fun portmanteau. Because it’s so obvious, I wondered why they call them “Softwiches” instead. Hence, the investigation. First I looked up the domain name because I thought it would make a sweet one. Unregistered! Good first step. Then, on a whim, I check uspto.gov, the Patent and Trademark Office. There, I find the word is a Registered Trademark. Awwww. But I notice there is a “Registrant” and an “Owner.” Huh? Further mysteries! It turns out that Cosà is the current Owner of the Trademark. But they were not the first to register it, maybe. I need someone more versed in Trademarks than I to determine that. It turns out Stu Lieberman and his wife wanted to run a bagel business in Florida by that name. Great idea! Except maybe Cosà had already been using that word. That’s the part I can’t figure out. It looks like the Liebermans never properly filed the paperwork. Can anyone help with this mystery?
http://www.trademarkia.com/squagels-75596070.html
Curious about the Liebermans’ business idea? Here’s their tagline for Squagels
For a Square Meal Eat a Squagel
It won’t roll off your table!
Interesting discovery along the way: if you file for a Trademark, lots of your personal info is fully searchable through the government. FYI.