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ARTICLE · 07 JANUARY 2014

Can An Emoticon Be Protected As A Trademark?

Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
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Gap Inc. and Diane Von Furstenberg’s company DVF Studio have asked the federal court in the Southern District of New York to rule on whether the heart emoticon <3 can be protected as a trademark. Their declaratory judgment complaint filed against VeryMeri Creative Media Inc., 13 civ 8943 (December 17, 2013), contends that VeryMeri cannot claim intellectual property rights in its stylized heart logo, which consists of or incorporates the <3 emoticon, since that logo/emoticon is "widely used in c

United StatesIntellectual Property
Susan Neuberger Weller
Susan Neuberger Weller
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Gap Inc. and Diane Von Furstenberg's company DVF Studio have asked the federal court in the Southern District of New York to rule on whether the heart emoticon <3 can be protected as a trademark. Their declaratory judgment complaint filed against VeryMeri Creative Media Inc., 13 civ 8943 (December 17, 2013),  contends that VeryMeri cannot claim intellectual property rights in its stylized heart logo, which consists of or incorporates the <3 emoticon, since that logo/emoticon is "widely used in connection with apparel and related products," since the stylized heart logo "is nothing more than a commonly used and well-known 'emoticon' or metacommunicative pictorial representation of a heart design," and because "no one entity can be said to have the exclusive right over all forms of this [emoticon heart] design."

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