The US Patent and Trademark Office (US PTO) has rejected Google’s application to trademark the term ‘Glass’ shown in a futuristic, stylised font.
According to trademark examiner Att.John Dwyer, the application would also create confusion as the word ‘Glass’ is ‘merely descriptive’. Such a trademark would also be similar to many others that currently exist, such as Write on Glass, Glass3D and Teleglass.
However, the tech giant’s trademark attorneys countered by saying that the frame and display modules of the wearable gadget do not include any glass at all, being made of plastic and titanium, so the trademark cannot be dismissed on these grounds.
"In this case, the mark GLASS would be understood as describing a feature of some the goods, namely, that some of the goods will incorporate display screens and/or lenses that are or will be made of, inter alia, glass," Dwyer added in his letter to Google cited by the Wall Street Journal.
"Accordingly, the mark is refused registration under Section 2(e)(1) as merely descriptive."
Google’s counter came in a 1,928-page letter, which included several accounts of confusion over the trade name given the amount of exposure received by the device in recent years.
Worn just like regular glasses, Google Glass can be operated via voice commands, with a small screen just on top of the right eye serving as its display, appearing much larger in the user’s peripheral vision.
