9/10/2014
Name of Apple’s Smartwatch Wasn’t a Secret — at Least in Trinidad and Tobago - Law Blog - WSJ
September 10, 2014, 3:56 PM ET
Name of Apple’s Smartwatch Wasn’t a Secret — at
Least in Trinidad and Tobago
ByJacob Gershman
Apple Watch
Wilson Rothman/The Wall Street Journal
For months, tech consumers speculated on what Apple Inc. would name its new smartwatch.
Predictions that it would be dubbed iWatch proved wrong when the company on Tuesday lifted the
curtain on the wearable device: Apple Watch.
But in fact, Apple had tipped its hand months earlier, planting clues thousands of miles away in a
trademark office in the southern Caribbean.
On March 11, the company submitted a trademark application for “Apple Watch” in Trinidad and
Tobago, an archipelagic republic off the coast of Venezuela with a population just above one million.
Why Trinidad and Tobago?
Under U.S. law, a company seeking to register a federal trademark starts to secure initial rights when it
files an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. “If your company is the first to
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2014/09/10/name-of-apple-smartwatch-wasnt-a-secret-at-least-in-trinidad-and-tobago/tab/print/?mg=blogs-wsj&url=http%253…
1/2
9/10/2014
Name of Apple’s Smartwatch Wasn’t a Secret — at Least in Trinidad and Tobago - Law Blog - WSJ
file a trademark application, your company is first in line to obtain the trademark registration in the
United States,” says Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney in Washington, D.C. It’s what he described as a
“first-come, first-served system.”
Here’s where Trinidad & Tobago enters the picture. The nation and the U.S. are signatories of an
international treaty allowing applicants to secure rights in a foreign country and then transfer them over
to their home country.
Under the agreement, an applicant that files in Trinidad and Tobago has a six-month window to apply
for the same trademark in the U.S. without resetting the clock. In other words, if Apple applies for an
“Apple Watch” trademark in the U.S. by Thursday, its application will be treated as if it were filed six
months ago on March 11. So if another company trying to acquire the same trademark filed its
application in the U.S. after that date, it would take a backseat to Apple’s.
A spokeswoman for Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Hemraj Dookie, who processes trademark applications for the intellectual property office of the Ministry
of Legal Affairs in Trinidad and Tobago, told Law Blog that Apple has submitted more than 250
trademark applications over the years.
Before Apple fans start scouring trademark offices around the globe, they should take heed: Foreign
trademark filings can also be red herrings. As WSJ earlier reported, Apple last year filed a trademark
application for “iWatch” in Japan, leading many to assume the company had already settled on that
name.
Copyright 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by
copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit
www.djreprints.com
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2014/09/10/name-of-apple-smartwatch-wasnt-a-secret-at-least-in-trinidad-and-tobago/tab/print/?mg=blogs-wsj&url=http%253…
2/2