Law of Cards: Upper Deck Files for Jambalaya and Quantum Trademarks
They year of the trademark continues.
March was busy for Upper Deck at the Trademark Office. In early March, it filed trademark applications for GREATS OF THE GAME, LEGENDARY, PRECIOUS METAL GEMS and LIMITED LOGOS. To round out the month, it filed two more: this time for QUANTUM and JAMBALAYA.
The details of these new filings are below:
| Word Mark | QUANTUM |
| Goods and Services | IC 016. US 002 005 022 023 029 037 038 050. G & S: trading cards |
| Standard Characters Claimed | |
| Mark Drawing Code | (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK |
| Serial Number | 85891046 |
| Filing Date | March 30, 2013 |
| Current Basis | 1B |
| Original Filing Basis | 1B |
| Owner | (APPLICANT) The Upper Deck Company, Inc. CORPORATION NEVADA 2251 Rutherford Road Carlsbad CALIFORNIA 92008 |
| Attorney of Record | Pollie Gautsch, Esq. |
| Type of Mark | TRADEMARK |
| Register | PRINCIPAL |
| Live/Dead Indicator | LIVE |
| Word Mark | JAMBALAYA |
| Goods and Services | IC 025. US 022 039. G & S: trading cards. FIRST USE: 20070313. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20070313 |
| Standard Characters Claimed | |
| Mark Drawing Code | (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK |
| Serial Number | 85891048 |
| Filing Date | March 30, 2013 |
| Current Basis | 1A |
| Original Filing Basis | 1A |
| Owner | (APPLICANT) The Upper Deck Company, Inc. CORPORATION CALIFORNIA 2251 Rutherford Road Carlsbad CALIFORNIA 92008 |
| Attorney of Record | Pollie Gautsch, Esq. |
| Type of Mark | TRADEMARK |
| Register | PRINCIPAL |
| Live/Dead Indicator | LIVE |
What's interesting about these filings is that while they cover the words QUANTUM and JAMBALAYA, they hint at card shapes different from the standard 2 ½ by 3 ½ inch cards.
Jambalaya dates back to Fleer/SkyBox in the 1990s. Given the Jambalaya cards unique oval shape and glossy metallic background (I'd say prismatic-ish background, but don't want to get sued by Leaf), they're some of the most popular basic inserts ever.
More recently, Upper Deck has used Jambalaya cards as cornerstones in its Fleer Retro sets, even those that aren't basketball and have nothing to do with "Jam."
Of note, it has evolved to Slambalaya for 2013 Upper Deck Tiger Woods Master Collection.
The QUANTUM filing, on the other hand, is an "intent to use" application (legal translation: meaning it's for a future product). However, if you comb through eBay, there are some older Upper Deck Quantum cards for sale, most of which are die-cuts of various shapes.
These two new trademark filings are tame compared to Upper Deck's LEGENDARY and LIMITED LOGOS filings. They don't hint at potential future legal skirmishes. Rather, they reference a more peaceful time when trademark filings covered a company's products and nothing more.
Of course, I could be wrong. Did another manufacturer just roll out a Quantum or Jambalaya product? If so, watch out!
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