Trying to register the name “Obamacare”… if you’re not Barack Obama

Ever wondered about the future of the term “Obamacare”? Probably not, but in case you have, it turns out that you are not the only one. At least six different parties have attempted to incorporate the term “Obamacare” in various trademark applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office—marks such as OBAMACARE CALCULATOR, OBAMACARE ENROLLMENT TEAM, and DESTROY OBAMACARE WWW.UNLEASHED-IDEAS.COM. Apart from the obvious descriptiveness problems with the first two marks, in each instance, the PTO Examiner refused the application based on the failure of the Applicant to include the consent of President Barack Obama in the application. As you might imagine, no Applicant has been able to secure that consent. Pretty basic, right? This refusal seems to fall rather squarely within the Section 2(c) prohibition in the Trademark Act against allowing the registration of a mark that incorporates the name of a living individual without that person’s consent.

There is some argument, although none has yet been made of record before the PTO, that the term “Obamacare” does not, in fact, identify Obama, but a law—the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. As to whether any applicant will make this argument to the PTO, I’ll keep you posted.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2013/10/17/can-you-trademark-obamacare/

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