WASHINGTON—The "Shock and Awe" campaigns have just begun for a host of U.S. marketers.
Sony's computer-games unit, a fireworks company, a pesticide maker and a boxing-glove marketer all have filed trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office seeking to sell their products under a "Shock and Awe" label.
So have sellers of swimwear, basketballs, T-shirts, baseball caps, mugs and plates.
Sharon Marsh, a spokeswoman at Patent and Trademark, said 15 "Shock and Awe" applications were pending. Sony's, filed March 21 for a war game, was among the first.
"It makes sense," Marsh said. "That term has gotten a lot of attention."
On a related front, a Maine-based war games company, Battlefront.com Inc., has applied for a trademark for the term "Operation Iraqi Freedom."
And a company that sells sunglasses wants the rights to the name that the Homeland Security Department chose for its wartime security program, "Liberty Shield."
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(c) 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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