November 21, 2001
#01-55

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Joins in the Celebration of Thanksgiving

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Joins in the Celebration of Thanksgiving

PRESS RELEASE

Recognizes patents and trademarks related to Thanksgiving

The Department of Commerce's United States Patent and Trademark Office joins in the celebration of Thanksgiving by recognizing some patents and trademarks associated with this festive holiday.

Food often takes center stage at Thanksgiving, and there are many well-known Thanksgiving-related products protected by patents and trademarks. One way to spend more time with family and less in the kitchen cleaning up is by using a disposable cooking pan (patent #5,628,427) or a cooking jacket (patent #4,942,809) for the turkey, ham or roast. One non-traditional, but increasingly popular, way to cook a turkey is deep-frying, and one type of equipment used in this preparation is protected by patent # 5,758,569.

Some well-known trademarks associated with turkey and dressing, must-haves at many Thanksgiving tables, are Butterball (registration #1151836) for turkey products and Stove Top (registration #0949459) for stuffing. What holiday feast would be complete without cranberry sauce such as Ocean Spray (registration #2150919)? Desserts are always the final complement to a Thanksgiving feast. For those that do not bake their own, Sara Lee's slogan for its pies and cakes, "Nobody Doesn't Like Sara Lee," is protected by trademark registration #1885156.

These patents and trademarks, as well as the more than six million patents issued since the first in 1790 and the 2.3 million trademarks registered since 1870, can be seen on the Department of Commerce's U.S. Patent and Trademark Office web site at www.uspto.gov .

Last year USPTO issued 182,223 patents and registered 127,794 trademarks