Guitar-Shaped Hotel Design Trademark Registration Moves Ahead

The Seminole Tribe of Florida can proceed with its application for a federal trademark registration for the design of the Guitar Hotel building’s guitar shape at its Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, which an administrative tribunal called “distinctive” in an opinion released Thursday.

The same day, the tribunal denied a San Antonio hotel’s application to register the shape of its building as a trademark.

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board overruled an examining attorney at the US Patent and Trademark Office, who had initially refused the Seminole Tribe’s application to register the trade dress “consisting of a three-dimensional building ...