Apple applies for new “Think Different” trademark, possibly as slogan for Apple Tablet

John Brownlee ()

ThinkDifferent

Although it’s certainly an iconic advertising slogan, I’ve always felt Apple was wise to leave “Think Different” behind as a manta for their Macs.

Poor grammar aside, the slogan is more suited to a small, sprightly underdog weakly jabbing away at a juggernaut, which Apple certainly was back in 1997, but is much less so today. As a slogan, it also has too much of the tell-tale whiff of smugness about it, a problem Apple’s advertising has wrestled with for most of the last decade. “Get a Mac” is better: it’s strong, it’s simple and it is assertive, not self-satisfied.

Still, maybe the old slogan could work in a new context: Apple has applied for a new trademark for “Think Different”…. and it may imply that the vintage slogan will be used to advertise the forthcoming Apple Tablet.

According to application 77882684 filed with the US Patent & Trademark Office, Apple’s International Classification 009 now covers the iPod under MP3 audio players, in addition to generic blanket coverage of “portable and handheld digital electronic devices.”

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My guess is that Apple’s just protecting their existing trademark by renewing it, but “Think Different” would certainly be a better slogan for the Apple Tablet than a Mac desktop or notebook: it is, after all, a very different sort of device than anything most consumers are currently familiar with.

[via 9to5Mac

5 comments »

About the author

John BrownleeJohn Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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  • http://www.toxicspark.com Andrew Macdonald

    I liked the ‘Think Different’ slogan so much that i got it tattooed on my arm…

    http://twitpic.com/h2x45

  • CaryMG

    No piece of tech polarizes me as much as iPad ….

    One the one hand: IT’S FUCKIN’ COOL & I AM SO-HO-HO GETTING ONE !!11!! lol

    On the other hand: Really …. What’s it’s use? A big iTouch? Big whoop ….

    I dunno, man ….
    I’ll probably cave & buy it.
    Fucking enabling Steve Jobs ….
    *grumble*

  • Rick

    My assumption is that they reapplied for it just to keep it. Like any trademark, if you don’t use it for a certain period of time, somebody else can come and take it. There is also usually an element of proof that you’re using it, so they’ll probably continue to throw it on random documents like apparently the new iMac’s shipping label. Imagine the shit storm that would occur if Microsoft picked it up and started using it.

  • http://www.allaboutstevejobs.com Romain

    even more so since the tablet will probably be a device that makes us think differently (by mixing text with movies and sounds for examples) from, say, when we read the papers

  • Icecastles

    This is a completely common practice among many, many companies. You know this.

    Please, please please, CoM, stop trying to tie absolutely EVERYTHING to the mythical tablet in an attempt to nab extra page views. I know you make money off advertising and the more page views you get the more you make on that advertising, but your integrity as a reliable source of Apple news has been in the toilet for a while, and this type of ‘gotcha’ headline is just bush legue.