Intellectual Property Law

What is International Class 16 All About?

Each class has a short title heading that gives a snapshot of what that class is all about -- IC 16's short title is paper goods and printed matter. But, as with anything trademark, there's more to it than that. The USPTO has 1515 accepted descriptions that fit into IC 16; check them out here.

Anything that's made of paper or is printed is in IC 16, which includes things like posters, journals, greeting cards, art prints, magazines, books, calendars and on and on.

What about Book Titles?

This is an area worth exploring a bit. Titles of a single creative work are not protected by trademark law; however, trademark registration may be possible if the title is used on a series of creative works. Let's delve into this a bit further.

Single creative works consist of materials where the content does not change, such as a book, a DVD, downloadable songs and a film. Single creative works do not include periodically issued publications, such as magazines, newsletters, brochures, comic books, comic strips or printed classroom materials, because the content of these works change with each issue.

When it comes to titles for a book series, the rationale is the same. While the title stays the same, the content changes. Take a look at the filing for Ring of Fates, part of The Final Fantasy catalog: "a series of books featuring fictional stories and/or fantasy stories."

What Else is in International Class 16?

Seems like with any of these trademark classes, there always seems to be the oddball item or two and IC 16 is no exception. Here are a few items living in IC 16 that seem to be a bit off kilter:

? cd shredders for home or office use
? globes
? cosmetic pencil sharpeners and removing paper
? money clips

Full post as published by TradeMark Express: A Daily Blog on July 16, 2009 (boomark / email).