Wall Street Journal Quotes Josh Gerben about Google “Glass” Filing

Google has recently attempted to register the term ‘Glass’ in relation to their Google Glass product.  However, the US Patent and Trademark Office is pushing back on this filing, citing cause for confusion among other reasons.

Josh Gerben was quoted and paraphrased by the Wall Street Journal Law blog discussing the outcomes if this filing does not result in registration:

Google doesn’t necessarily need a federal registration to call its product “Glass” or enforce a trademark on the word.  But if Google’s trademark effort falls short, […] it could make it harder for the company to protect the trademark or sue for infringement.

Mr. Gerben said that while Google could avoid a trademark fight by just referring to its device as “Google Glass,” a single, simple word has obvious marketing advantages.

“They just want to call it ‘Glass.’ They don’t want to have to call it ‘Google Glass,’” he said.

Source: Gershman, J.  “Cracks in Google’s Bid to Trademark ‘Glass'”.  Wall Street Journal Law Blog.  April 3 2014.