Apple loses bid to trademark 'multi-touch' • The Register

The US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected Apple's appeal to obtain a trademark for the term "multi-touch". "Simply because the applied-for term has been used in association with a highly successful product does not mean the term has acquired distinctiveness," concludes the USPTO's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in an 18-page review of Apple's appeal to a USPTO examining attorney's earlier refusal of trademark protection.