Snooki vs. Snooky the Cat: Officials Reject 'Jersey Shore' Star's Attempt to Trademark Her Name

Wonderwall, Friday, August 13, 2010, 12:11pm (PDT)

By Rebecca Silverstein

Pickle-eating, pouf-wearing Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi may be one of a kind, but her name isn't. When the "Jersey Shore" star tried to trademark her nickname so she could use it for books, the US Patent and Trademark Office denied her request for a trademark for "printed material," The Smoking Gun reports.

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Why? Because of Snooky the cat! Not familiar? The feline in question is the subject of a trademarked 2003 children's book "Adventures of Snooky: Under the Sea" about a cat who gets thrown overboard during a family fishing trip, and there's a "likelihood of confusion" between the two in printed material. Fortunately, Snooki's application to trademark her name in "entertainment in the nature of personal appearance by a television personality" should go through without a hitch.

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And should Snooki really want to publish her memoir, she's permitted to "respond to the refusal by submitting evidence and arguments in support of

registration" in rebuttal.

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