Recently, the beverage giant Coca-Cola sought to register two hashtags as trademarks namely #cokecanpics and
#smilewithacoke. These hashtags are being used on Twitter in connection with
the company’s soft drinks. The company used the hashtag #cokejourney on Twitter
to promote personal development among Coca-Cola fans.
Hashtags consist of the hash
symbol (“#”) followed by a word or phrase. Hashtags are a useful way to
categorize conversations within multiple platforms, including Twitter, Facebook
and Instagram. A user clicks on the hashtag and can see the content posted by
other users with the same hashtag.
Coca-Cola is not a pioneer in
this area. There have been other companies who have applied to register
hashtags as trademarks to protect their online campaigning. In 2014, a UK
cheese company by the name Wyke Farms. They had sought to register an online
competition ‘Free Cheese Friday’ as a trademark. The trademark is used only to
protect the company’s online marketing campaigns.
The question that arises here is
whether Coca-Cola will be able to register these two hashtags as trademarks. Hashtags
can be registered like any other mark and the traditional rules apply. It
certainly will be able to do so and it will be subject to how it plans to use
these hashtags.
- Nayanika Singhal
