An additional hint about Apple’s future retail plans was revealed in their recent application for the two-word trademark “Joint Venture.” The business-oriented word pair seems to indicate the company will use the trademark as part of a new service, possibly fee-based, intended to bring more business customers into the store. Tipsters have said Apple intends to provide more attention to business customers during 2010, and the company has recently reorganized job positions to kick off that project. As first reported by the Patently Apple web site, Apple’s application to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) described the nature of the trademark in standard, elemental terms. “Retail store services featuring computers, computer software, computer peripherals, and consumer electronic devices, and demonstration of products relating thereto,” the application stated. The same wording has been used to describe past trademarks, including the phrase “Genius Bar.”
One must look past the trademark and its description, however, to determine how it might be used.
Apple first created a business-related staffer within its retail stores in 2004 with the Business Specialist position. The job title was renamed to Business Partner in 2008, and then just last month it was changed to Business Manager. Apple’s job listings show that only a few stores across the country are currently taking applications for the newly-named position.
In earlier times, Apple carved out the hour before a store opened for business customer training appointments covering Apple or third-party products. The company continues to give reserved seating workshops at some stores for business customers before normal opening hours. For example, stores are giving early business workshops on the POS•IM point-of-sale system and on iPhone business productivity.
The company also allows business customers to make appointments for a “Business Consultation” using the on-line Concierge reservation system. Smaller stores seem to schedule one or two appointments in the morning and afternoon, three appointments in the evening, and none on the weekends. Larger stores have six to eight slots for each portion of the day, and also have weekend appointments available.
As for the trademark application, it was filed by Lisa Widup, the company’s Intellectual Property Counsel on February 23, 2010, and simply covers the words, “Joint Venture,” without any particular font or type design. The application isn’t unique, although USPTO records indicate only five other entities have ever applied for those same two words over the years.
The U.S. patent application indicates that Apple applied for a trademark on the same two words in Jamaica during August 2009. In its U.S. filing, the company requested a priority on its application based on this earlier filing, saying, “Applicant has a bona fide intention to use the mark in commerce on or in connection with the identified goods and/or services.”
Apple commonly registers trademarks in other countries to avoid general public scrutiny, and then uses that application as a basis for obtaining priority on the right to obtain the trademark in the United States.
For example, the One To One trademark was first registered in Trinidad-Tobago in March 2007. Apple waited until September of that year to file an application for the same wording in the U.S. It filed a trademark for “OS X” in the same country in 2008, and for “Magic Trackpad” there just last week.
Besides the basic trademark description, the application also described its eventual use as related to, “Maintenance, installation and repair of computer hardware, computer peripherals, computer networks, and consumer electronic devices; information, advisory and consultancy services relating to all the aforesaid.”
Download (pdf) the full application for more descriptions of the trademark.
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