Travel Agency Files CECIL THE LION Trademark Application

Capitalizing on the recent buzz surrounding the killing of Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe, Exclusive Adventures, Inc. (also appearing to do business as Adventures Croatia) filed a federal trademark application for CECIL THE LION on July 30th in four different classes for charms, t-shirts, plush toys, and charitable fundraising services for conserving wildlife.

The only class in which the applicant claims to be currently using the mark is the class containing charitable fundraising services for conserving wildlife, for which it submitted several screenshots from a website it set up soliciting donations (pictured below).

If Exclusive Adventures, Inc. is successful in obtaining its trademark, it will have the exclusive, nationwide right to use the term CECIL THE LION in conjunction with the sale of charms, t-shirts, plush toys, and charitable fundraising services for conserving wildlife.

This is not the only application for CECIL THE LION filed on July 30th. Another company called i-Star Entertainment filed an application for t-shirts and toys, among other items. This application did not list a basis (intent-to-use or currently using) but nonetheless met the requirements for obtaining a filing date under 37 CFR 2.21(a) and TMEP 202.

According to TMEP 1208.01(b), if two conflicting applications have the same filing date, the application executed the earliest will have priority. In this case, the i-Star Entertainment application gets priority. It was executed at 11:58am EST while Exclusive Adventures' application was executed 6:56pm EST. It will be interesting to see how these two applications turn out.