Posts Tagged: "Rubik’s Cube"

The Most Iconic (and Patented) Toys and Games of All Time

Since America’s earliest days, a lot of creative and innovative toys have come through the consumer marketplace. Many becoming so iconic they have become household names and synonymous with a moment in time for America’s youth. Some of the most popular of these toys that continue to show up year after year under Christmas trees were patented… It wouldn’t be a traditional Christmas at IPWatchdog unless we spent some time profiling some cool innovations that relate to the holiday season. So today, I return to one of our all time favorite articles. Five years ago we published The Top 10 Most Iconic (and Patented) Toys and last year we published The Most Iconic (and Patented) Games. With Christmas firmly in mind, it is time to revisit and expand these lists. When initially published some truly iconic classic toys and games were inexplicably left missing. So, with the hours winding down before Santa Claus makes his way down chimneys across the world, join us as we look back at some of the most popular toys and games of all time, as well as the patents behind them.

The Most Iconic (and Patented) Games

Several years ago we profiled the Top 10 Iconic (and Patented) Toys in our Christmas Eve edition. This year we decided to profile the most iconic and patented games, many of which are still likely to be found waiting for good little girls and boys under the Christmas tree. Profiled are Monopoly®, Rubik’s Cube, Battleship, and Rock’em Sock’em Robots, Twister and Simon.

How Does the UK Trade Mark Registration System operate?

The news headlines are becoming ever more populated with stories of big brands trying and failing in some instances to register a trade mark for their product. Lindt infamously failed to register their signature gold foiled chocolate bunny in Germany, similarly Rubiks lost its bid to register the EU trademark for the puzzle. The latest addition to this string of companies was Nestlé who attempted and failed to register the KitKat design. Nestlé’s application for trade mark registration failed on the ground that the four finger chocolate bar design was not distinctive enough. This raises the question in the world of intellectual property law as to just what will surpass the trade mark test, and indeed what this test consists of within the UK.