Being Green has become so hot that it's lead to "green gridlock, with multiple companies filing for almost-identical marks at nearly the same time," wrote Glenn Gundersen, chair of Dechert's trademark practice, in the report. "Clearly, it's not easy being green, since a trademark by definition is a distinctive term. ... Many of these me-too filings will either not merit legal protection or will be very weak trademarks."

In 2006, green themed marks spiked by 10% in trademark filings topping 300,000. Applications ranged from the obvious terms, such as go green, eco-friendly to the obscure such as ("Green Is the New Black," "Red States, Blue States, Green States". 

Here are the following words that were most used in trademarks within the green branding space in 2007:
Green = 2400 occurrences 
Energy = 1200 occurrences 
Clean = 900 occurrences 
Earth = 900 occurrences  
Eco = 900 occurrences 
Organic = 700 occurrences 
Environment = 450 occurrences 
Planet = 400 occurrences 
Friendly = 180 occurrences   

Read the full article at Advertising Age

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