In an interesting case, a “heart” is quite literally at the “heart” of a trademark dispute. Most recently, fashion house, Gap Inc. and fashion design company, Diane von Furstenberg (DVF) Studio, have approached a federal court in the Southern District of New York to decide whether the “heart emoticon” (<3) can be protected as a trademark [declaratory judgment complaint 13 civ 8943 (December 17, 2013)]. In the light of this development, it is worth exploring the trademark worthiness of emoticons and whether...
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