By: iPadfanzz staff on April 2, 2013
The US Patent and Trademark Office has denied Apple's request to trademark the term "iPad mini" – but it is likely that Cupertino-based Apple will overturn the decision on appeal.
The patent office says that "mini" is “descriptive of a feature” of the product, it can’t form part of the trademarked name.
“The term “MINI” in the applied for mark is also descriptive of a feature of applicant’s product. Specifically, the attached evidence shows this wording means “something that is distinctively smaller than other members of its type or class,” the statement said.
Apple filed trademark application on November 15, 2012, but could not able to persuade the patents office, so the Cupertino's legal team now has six months to appeal by "submitting evidence and arguments in support of registration."
And it is not just the iPad Mini, but curiously the ruling also seems to state that ‘iPad’ can’t be trademarked, because the ‘i’ stands for internet, and is therefore also just descriptive. The office also argued that the term 'pad' refers to a 'pad computer' or 'internet pad device', terms used synonymously to refer to tablet computers," and that "The term 'IPAD' is descriptive when applied to applicant's goods because the prefix 'I' denotes 'internet'."
Apple, however, does hold a trademark on the term "iPad", having purchased it from Fujitsu in March 2010 for an undisclosed sum.
