Trademark Spectacles Called Ancient, Snap Files Lawsuit

Snap, has sued the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) (photo: pixabay doc)

JAKARTA - Snapchat's parent company, Snap, has sued the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for rejecting the trademark for its smart glasses, dubbed Spectacles.

Snap claims not to match the use of the word between the 18th century terms for corrective glasses and 21st century smart glasses with Snap's high technology. According to the USPTO, Spectacles is an ancient word.

In an opinion, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Agency published in November, the USPTO said Snap's use of the word Spectacles had failed to become a necessary hallmark for the trademark.

"Spectacles are very commonly used to describe the nature of a competitor's product or product, rather than the source of a specific product," the USPTO said.

Despite the publicity Snap claims for Spectacles from its marketing and social media, the board argues that Spectacles' social media accounts alone have a very low following.

This indicates that Snap does not support its own argument that Spectacles is known or has multiple users. In its lawsuit against the USPTO, Snap hopes to overturn the appeals board's decision soon.

Snap first filed for the Spectacles trademark in 2016, the same year the first-generation model was released. His marketing campaign used vending machines, but the sale yielded no good news, and his smart glasses were only stored in a Chinese warehouse.

Despite losing $40 million on its first product, Snap hasn't given up on releasing two new models and in May 2021, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel showcased an augmented reality (AR) version of Spectacles, which so far has only been available to a small group of content creators and reviewers. selected by the company.

For that Snap really fights for Spectacles as its trademark, because there has been enough media coverage about Spectacles, supported by several industry awards and its own marketing including social media, to support its claim that consumers are familiar with the word Spectacles with the Snap brand.