Tagmarks

68 Pages Posted: 14 Jul 2015 Last revised: 11 Sep 2022

See all articles by Alexandra J. Roberts

Alexandra J. Roberts

Northeastern University - School of Law

Date Written: July 13, 2015

Abstract

From Kentucky Fried Chicken’s #HowDoYouKFC campaign to viral fundraiser #IceBucketChallenge to Instagram phenomenon #TBT, hashtags as trademarks — I call them “tagmarks” — are having a moment. Given the resources that brands invest in marketing via social media, and specifically in choosing and using hashtags, it’s not surprising that some players have begun to seek federal trademark registration for those hashtags. By the end of 2015, companies had successfully registered two hundred tagmarks and sought protection for over a thousand others; the US Trademark Office granted more tagmark registrations in that year than it did in every previous year combined. But can a hashtag really be a trademark? This Article argues that because consumers are primed to perceive a hashtag primarily as a tool for search, organization, or self-expression on social media, any trademark meaning that might attach to a hashtag is necessarily a secondary meaning. As such, even tagmarks comprising suggestive or arbitrary terms will not inherently serve as source indicators and should only be granted protection upon a showing of secondary meaning.

Note: This paper is a work in progress; draft on file with author.

Keywords: trademarks; intellectual property; social media; Internet; hashtags; USPTO; registration

Suggested Citation

Roberts, Alexandra Jane, Tagmarks (July 13, 2015). 105 California Law Review 599 (2017), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2630195

Alexandra Jane Roberts (Contact Author)

Northeastern University - School of Law ( email )

416 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
616
Abstract Views
6,585
Rank
86,290
PlumX Metrics