Although its trademark registration had expired in the country, there were good reasons for this.
Apple responded by saying the lawsuit was "silly" and that Cisco's trademark registration was "tenuous at best".
The United States Patent and Trademark Office issued KODAK its first trademark registration 100 years ago this week.
BasicNet first applied for a "Jesus" trademark registration in the U.S. in 1999, but it took another eight years for the trademark office to grant it.
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"IPHONE" was filed for trademark registration in Brazil in 2000, and although Apple started offering its handset in the country in 2007, Gradiente scored exclusive rights to the name in 2008.
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Of course, and this is a topic for another day, no one is required to own a federal registration to use a trademark, and the absence of a registration does not prove a mark is unlawful.
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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website shows a registration filed January 14, 2013.
Registration of a trademark does provide some legal presumptions, including the presumption that a mark is valid and enforceable in court.
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Without registration, the trademark owner must first prove to a court that it indeed owns an exclusive right to use a trademark in order to prohibit use of confusingly similar terms by others.
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Initially, for a period of four months, registration will be limited to public companies and trademark owners to avoid the risk of cybersquatters taking names which are not legally theirs.
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