The PTO vs. The Phantom Marks: A Ghost Story

Don't read this one before bed.

As autumn sets in and Halloween approaches, my mind turns to jack-o-lanterns, skeletons, and phantoms. Phantom marks, that is. Equally incorporeal though perhaps somewhat less frightening than their ghostly namesakes, phantom marks are registered trademarks that contain a "phantom," or changeable, element.  A well-known phantom registration was _ _ _ _ _ _ FOR DUMMIES for various self-help books, where the dotted line represented different descriptive terms that vary according to the subject matter of the book.  A hypothetical example of a phantom mark is JOSH'S DELICIOUS xxxxx WINE  for wine, where the "xxxxx" represents a type of fruit.  Other examples include marks incorporating a date, a geographic location, or a model number that is subject to change.