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January 27, 2010

HTC's "Quietly Brilliant" vs. ShoreTel's "Brilliantly Simple" Slogan Conflict

There's a potential trademark dispute brewing between HTC, the Taiwanese cell phone maker, and ShoreTel, the Sunnyvale, California-based Internet Protocol phone system provider.

HTC's new tagline is, "Quietly brilliant."

ShoreTel's new tagline is, "Brilliantly simple."

The trouble is, both companies compete in International Class Code 9, and 37. International Class Codes divide consumer goods and services into similar categories and are primarily used to file trademarks.

In the United States, ShoreTel has a jump on HTC since they filed earlier on June 8, 2009, and actually were just allowed the slogan by the US trademark office.

But internationally, HTC filed for a trademark application for its "Brilliantly simple," slogan which the US and other country trademark offices have not ruled on yet.

I think, ShoreTel's trademark filing of "Brilliantly simple," has a good chance of trumping HTC's "Quietly brilliant," in both the US and globally, since ShoreTel can claim that they had every intention to file "Brilliantly simple," globally.

It will be interesting to see how this potential trademark clash will play out.

Technorati Tags: HTC, ShoreTel, Quietly brilliant, Brilliantly simple, tagline

Posted by William Lozito at January 27, 2010 9:26 AM
Posted to Consumer Electronics | Licensing | Naming | Naming Rights | Slogans | Taglines | Technology | Telecommunications

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