‘DA POPE’ Trademark Rush Hits the USPTO After Chicago Pontiff Picked

By Josh Gerben, Esq.

Published: May 9, 2025
Modified: July 3, 2025 Published: May 9, 2025 | Modified: July 3, 2025

Within an hour of the announcement of the new Pope, who hails from the Chicago area, trademark applications for ‘DA POPE’ began pouring into the USPTO.

At exactly 2:11 PM Eastern, just 59 minutes after the new Pontiff was revealed, a Chicago-based man, Jonathan Turpin, became the first to file a trademark application for ‘DA POPE.’ Three more applications followed in rapid succession: one at 2:46 PM, another at 5:02 PM, and the last at 5:29 PM.

What do all four filings have in common? Each seeks to register ‘DA POPE’ for use on clothing—a fast attempt to capitalize on the viral nickname quickly attached to the new Pope, whose Chicago roots immediately struck a cultural chord.

To anyone familiar with Chicago slang, “Da Pope” fits right in. Think: Da Bears—the affectionate way many locals refer to their beloved NFL team, immortalized in a 1990s Saturday Night Live sketch. Now, “Da Bears” and “Da Pope” are set to share a place in Chicago’s cultural lexicon.

How will these trademark applications play out?

Typically, the person who files a trademark application first wins. In other words, the USPTO would grant a registration to the person who filed the first application and deny the rest.

That said, in this case, none of the trademark applicants are likely to succeed. 

United States trademark law prevents anyone from registering a trademark that references a living individual without their consent (or creates a false association with that individual). And in this case, it’s obvious that ‘DA POPE’ is a direct reference to the new (and very much alive) Pope Leo XIV.

Unless the Pontiff himself blesses the applications, the USPTO will issue swift refusals of all the filings. This means that the owners of these trademark applications just wasted hundreds of dollars in government filing fees (and any associated legal fees).

Still, in the trademark world, this is nothing new. Major public events often trigger a frenzy of speculative filings, most of which go nowhere. And don’t be surprised if a few more ‘DA POPE’ trademarks trickle in over the coming days.

While no one will be able to register ‘DA POPE’, they could still sell ‘DA POPE’ merchandise online. 

The only entity that can stop them?

The Vatican.

It would be highly unusual, but the Vatican could take the step to file a trademark for ‘DA POPE’ and stop all the unlicensed merchandise from being sold.

This is exactly how DA BEARS would handle the situation.

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Josh Gerben, Esq.

Josh Gerben, Esq. is a nationally recognized trademark attorney and the founder of Gerben IP. Since launching the firm in 2008, he has overseen the registration of over 10,000 trademarks and handled over 1,500 trademark disputes. Josh's practice focuses on building and defending global trademark portfolios for clients. These clients include entrepreneurs, private equity-backed businesses, athletes, celebrities, and public companies. Frequently quoted by major media outlets like CNBC, CNN, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, Josh is widely regarded as a leading authority in trademark law.