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You are viewing ARCHIVED CONTENT released online between 1 April 2010 and 24 August 2018 or content that has been selectively archived and is no longer active. Content in this archive is NOT UPDATED, and links may not function.By Dina Roumiantseva and Aaron Rubin
Hashtags have become ubiquitous in social media, but their status as intellectual property—particularly as trademarks—is still developing. First adopted by Twitter users to link user posts, hashtags are character strings preceded by the “#” symbol that generate a link to all other posts containing the same tag. Today, in addition to providing the search-related functionality for which they were first developed, hashtags provide businesses new ways to engage with consumers .
The USPTO defines a hashtag as “a form of metadata comprised of a word or phrase prefixed with the symbol ‘#’” and states that a hashtag mark may be registerable, but only if it functions as an identifier of the source of the applicant’s goods or services.
Read the complete article at: #Trademarks?: Hashtags as Trademarks