US Patent Office Rejects Apple iPad Mini Trademark

By Gilbert Falso :: 1:28 PM

Last week, it was made public that the US Patent And Trademark Office had denied Apple’s request for a trademark on the name of its new small tablet, the iPad Mini.

Apple had been notified of the decision at the end of January, but the legal paperwork only became public within the last few days. The Patent Office denied the trademark because, “the applied-for mark merely describes a feature or characteristic of applicant’s goods.” The iPad Mini is small – the word “Mini” is descriptive of the new iPad’s size, so no trademark for Apple.

The company can respond to the ruling, but patent experts are unsure how Apple might be successful in swaying the opinion of the office that the term Mini is anything other than descriptive. The Patent Office would only issue the trademark if Apple could somehow show that the word ‘mini’ has acquired a “distinctiveness” because of the iPad. Something Apple isn’t likely to be able to prove.

iPad Mini was announced in October, 2012, and is the 7.9-inch version of the standard iPad tablet, which is 9.7 inches. It first sold on November 2, 2012.