Now this is a rather surprising turn of events – normally, one would have thought that it is pretty straightforward to pick up a trademark for your products, especially when you are a corporate behemoth like Apple. Hence, it proved to be an eye opener when the United States Patent and Trademark Office officially denied Apple a trademark for the iPad mini tablet.
Does this mean that the iPad mini will have to be called something else? Not really, as Apple still has another solid recourse to fall back upon, that is, they have the right to reply to the denial of its trademark application, while making sure that issues discovered will be rectified in due time. Basically, the main issue for Apple’s rejection would be the iPad mini mark, which “merely describes a feature or characteristic of applicant’s good.” Hence, the onus is on Apple to show the USPTO that “mini” is somehow a distinctive name, which shouldn’t be too difficult considering the legal eagles that they have under their employment.