Seventy-five years ago this year, one of the most familiar public service images was created: Smokey Bear. As explained on Smokey Bear’s own personal website, this character was inspired when a Japanese submarine appeared along the California coast during World War II and fired shells onto an oil field. Fear that these could explode and set fire to a nearby forest while most firefighters were deployed in the war prompted action. A desire to urge the general public to take extra care to prevent wildfires was born, and Smokey Bear first admonished us that only we can prevent wildfires in 1944. In the decades since, Smokey’s famous tag line has been updated a couple times, but remains a caution we can all appreciate even (and perhaps especially) today.
If you search the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the “PTO”) database, you will find some information about Smokey Bear, but not a trademark registration. The PTO keeps certain information about materials that are not federally registered or the subject of federal trademark applications. This non-registration data is entered into the database because of treaty obligations, statutes, or other requirements. This information may help examining attorneys when they are searching the database in the course of examining new applications. Such information is indicated with an “application” number beginning with the “89” series. The mark SMOKEY BEAR is entered into the database this way because there are federal statutes protecting the name and image of Smokey Bear.
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