Sony Overcomes PTO Objections to Bid to Register 'Acoustic Surface' Trademark

Sony appears to have overcome Patent and Trademark Office objections to its application to register the trademark "Acoustic Surface" for the proprietary audio technology it’s building directly into its OLED TV screens (see 1706060070). PTO notified Sony Friday that its application is scheduled to be published for opposition March 20, meaning the application can proceed to the next stage toward registration if no outside party raises objections within 30 days. A PTO examiner rejected the application in a July 13 notice, saying Acoustic Surface would cause market confusion with Microsoft’s pending application to register the Surface tablet trademark. Microsoft landed a registration certificate Jan. 30 for the Surface. Sony, in a Jan. 18 reply, amended its application with a disclaimer that it seeks no “exclusive right” to use the word “surface,” so that the word “acoustic” would be the “dominant feature” of the Acoustic Surface trademark. Sony also argued Acoustic Surface is “sufficiently different” from Microsoft’s Surface “in sound, meaning, appearance and commercial impression, and that its goods are sufficiently distinct, so as not to conflict with” the Surface tablet, said the company. Sony thinks “there is room for the coexistence” of Acoustic Surface and Microsoft's Surface, it said.