The National Law Review’s featured guest bloggers this week are from our friends up north at Winthrop Weinstine. In keeping with all things Halloween and a bow to pop-culture, Sharon Armstrong discusses trademark filings in relation to these spooky favorites: 
What is it with zombies these days? If recent memory serves correct, it wasn’t so long ago that a pop-culture junkie like me couldn’t mention the words “creature of the night” without some girl/tween/soccer mom swooning over the likes of one Edward Cullen, the romantic hero of Stephanie Meyer’s wildly popular Twilight series. You know who you are.
Then there was True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, and a slew of other vampire-related books, movies, parodies, and the like, including what may be one of the best fan-made mash-ups ever.
And then came the zombies. I received a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies about a year ago as a gift – and suddenly it seems that zombies, like vampires, are everywhere too.
A recent review of the new television series “The Walking Dead” in the New York Times explains that “[z]ombie movies didn’t die off, but they were overshadowed by vampire mania that has dominated popular culture… Finally, perhaps as a backlash against all the girlish, gothic swooning over ‘Twilight,’ zombies are making a comeback.”
If recent filing activity at the Trademark Office is any indication, then what’s left of 2010 (and 2011) may be The Year of the Zombie. The stats are as follows:
Since September 6, 2006, the date upon which Twilight was first published, the following trademark applications have been filed with the Trademark Office:
- 132 marks incorporating the term “zombie”
- 118 marks incorporating the term “vampire”
- 116 marks incorporating the term “demon”
- 83 marks incorporating the term “troll”
- 13 marks incorporating the term “ghoul”
- 9 marks incorporating the term “corpse”
Of the first two categories, and since April 4, 2009, the date upon which “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” was published, 84 applications for marks incorporating the term “vampire” have been filed and 69 applications for marks incorporating the term “zombie” have been filed.
Tellingly, the most recent applications incorporating the term “vampire” are for the mark VAMPIRES SUCK, for a variety of goods and services.
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About the Author:
Sharon D. Armstrong is an associate in the Intellectual Property practice group. Her practice is focused on the prosecution and enforcement of trademarks and copyrights, and Internet/domain name enforcement and acquisition. She assists clients in nearly all facets of trademark prosecution and enforcement, both foreign and domestic, administrative proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, and intellectual property transactions including due diligence, licensing, trademark acquisitions, settlement, consent and coexistence agreements, and other transfers of rights. Ms. Armstrong also provides assistance with intellectual property litigation and arbitration. Prior to joining Winthrop & Weinstine, Ms. Armstrong was an associate with Greenberg Traurig in Las Vegas, Nevada, a law clerk with the National Endowment for the Humanities, and an arts administrator at Los Angeles Opera. www.winthrop.com /612-604-6463
