Nationally-recognised optician chain Specsavers has submitted a trade mark application to secure exclusive rights to the use of the word “should’ve” – commonly used in its “should’ve gone to Specsavers” advertising campaigns.
The news follows the footsteps of corporations such as McDonald’s and KitKat conglomerate Nestle, which have successfully trade marked the phrases “I’m lovin’ it” and “Have a Break,” respectively, in previous years.
However, experts have suggested that Specsavers’ application to The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is unusual in its attempts to secure a trade mark on a single word – particularly a verb in common conversational use.
Danish lager giant Carlsberg’s use of the word “probably” perhaps represents a similar example of such a single-word trade mark – yet, in Carlsberg’s efforts, the corporation only managed to secure rights to exclusive use of the word in relation to its own beer products.
According to BBC News, Specsavers’ application seeks ‘a much broader remit’.
The iconic optician brand successfully won the right to trade mark to oval shapes used in its company logo in 2014 – much to the annoyance of supermarket chain Asda, which was subsequently prevented from using a logo which Specsavers said bared strong resemblance to its own.
The duo were famously embroiled in a six year dispute, which saw Specsavers win an appeal to the exclusive rights of the green oval shapes.