New "COVID-19" US Trademark Applications Cause Controversy

Written by Alina Cartan

Photo by Ani Kolleshi on Unsplash

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) has infected more than 90,000 people globally this week, and the outbreak is massively dominating news headlines. Consequently, a number of trademark applications linked to this epidemic have been filed in the United States.

On February 15, 2020, And Still, LLC filed the trademark application COVID-19 VAX in association with vaccines. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that And Still, LLC has developed a vaccine for COVID-19 as other trademarks registered by the applicant are associated to “beer” and “clothing”.
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While some believe that an opportunistic COVID-19 trademark application is likely to fail as it is too descriptive, we will only be able to determine its registrability once the filed application has been assigned to an examiner in approximately three months. 

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