Green Land Grab

Marketers have “bombarded the Patent and Trademark Office” during the last year for green-themed marks, according to a report released by the law firm Dechert, leading the way to a 10 percent spike over 2006 in overall trademark filings.

Buoyed by the interest in environmentalism, filings for new trademarks last year topped 300,000. The previous record was 289,000 filings, set in 2000 during the Internet boom.

The enviro-mania has lead to a "green gridlock, with multiple companies filing for almost-identical marks at nearly the same time," says Glenn Gundersen, chair of Dechert's trademark practice, in the report. “Many of these me-too filings will either not merit legal protection or will be very weak trademarks."

"Green," of course, was the most popular word among marketers, with applications more than doubling from 1,100 in 2006 to 2,400 in 2007. That follows a 23 percent increase in applications in 2005 and a 37 percent increase in 2006.

Trademarks requests with the prefix "eco" also more than doubled in 2007, with nearly 900 new applications, says the report. Quips Gundersen: "if all the new eco-branded products filed in 2007 actually came to market, an EcoCitizen could buy an EcoHouse in EcoTown from an EcoRealtor."

Word Most Used in Trademarks
within Green Branding Space in 2007
(Numbers are approximate)
Term.....................Occurrences
Green..........................2,400
Energy........................1,200
Clean ..........................900
Earth..........................900
Eco..............................900
Organic ......................700
Environment...............450
Planet..........................400
Friendly......................180