A family of marks is defined as “a group of marks having a recognizable common characteristic, wherein the marks are composed and used in such a way that the public associates not only the individual marks, but the common characteristic of the family, with the trademark owner.” J & J Snack Foods Corp. v. McDonald’s Corp., 932 F.2d 1460, 1462, 18 USPQ2d 1889, 1891 (Fed. Cir. 1991). The common element is often a term, a phrase, or a component in the nature of a prefix or suffix.
However, another idea that our Firm has adopted is using a common design element to introduce related marks.
For example, our primary logo that we designed internally and adopted on the day our Firm opened on January 15, 2016 looks like this:
Over the past three years as our business has evolved, we have realized that our Firm being innovative, experienced, and nimble sets us apart from many others. To this end, we brainstormed and came up with a variation in our main logo to create:
We recently filed a trademark application with the USPTO on the principal register for this new mark which is both similar and different from what we are using to identify our brand. We maintained the MMWV in the same colors / color family but rotated the design and added Agile IP TM along a diagonal. Agile IPTM is our internal and external processes for managing projects and business strategies. We have adopted creative strategies in these regards which allow us to work anywhere and have constant knowledge of status and completion of items in progress. We also utilize artificial intelligence (AI) for asset management strategy in connection with leveraging of intellectual property (“IP”). The fact that the new design is on the diagonal speaks to the lack of rigidity of our Firm and its successes.
So now the question becomes, WHAT’S NEXT?
