I'm curious as to your reasoning. What are "utility" purposes? It's a trademark on top of everything else.
Do you have a preference towards hollow ground knives?
"Utility purposes", like openng a knife blade. If a trademark has utility, the courts will not uphold a trademark. For example, the "Coca-Cola" symbol is a trademark, as is the Niki "swish" - ornamental features on the products being sold.
"Utility patents are for products of some use. In general, a utility patent protects the way an invention is used and works. Utility patents may be granted to anyone who invents a new and useful method, process, machine, device, manufactured item, or chemical compound - or any new and useful improvement to the same."
What is "utility"? Some funtional use other than ornamentation.
"A design patent protects only the ornamental appearance of an invention, not its utilitarian features. A utility patent would protect the way an article is used and works."
"Trademarks are a distinctive name, symbol, motto, or design that legally identifies a company or its products and services, and sometimes prevents others from using identical or similar marks." A showing that a trademark has significant utility would more than likely result in the trademark rights being taken away.
U.S. Trademark 74624039 is for the circular hole in the blade. This trademark would not be issued today due to a change in rules in 1998.
"1202.02(a)(ii) Purpose of Functionality Doctrine
The functionality doctrine, which prohibits registration of functional product features, is intended to encourage legitimate competition by maintaining the proper balance between trademark law and patent law. As the Supreme Court explained, in Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co., Inc., 514 U.S. 159, 164-165, 34 USPQ2d 1161, 1163 (1995):
The functionality doctrine prevents trademark law, which seeks to promote competition by protecting a firm’s reputation, from instead inhibiting legitimate competition by allowing a producer to control a useful product feature. It is the province of patent law, not trademark law, to encourage invention by granting inventors a monopoly over new product designs or functions for a limited time, 35 U.S.C. §§154, 173, after which competitors are free to use the innovation. If a product’s functional features could be used as trademarks, however, a monopoly over such features could be obtained without regard to whether they qualify as patents and could be extended forever (because trademarks may be renewed in perpetuity).
In other words, the functionality doctrine ensures that protection for utilitarian product features be properly sought through a limited-duration utility patent, and not through the potentially unlimited protection of a trademark registration. Upon expiration of a utility patent, the invention covered by the patent enters the public domain, and the functional features disclosed in the patent may then be copied by others – thus encouraging advances in product design and manufacture. In TrafFix Devices, Inc. v. Marketing Displays, Inc., 532 U.S. 23, 34-35, 58 USPQ2d 1001, 1007 (2001), the Supreme Court reiterated this rationale, also noting that the functionality doctrine is not affected by evidence of acquired distinctiveness.
Thus, even where the evidence establishes that consumers have come to associate a functional product feature with a single source, trademark protection will not be granted in light of the public policy reasons stated. Id."
No preference for hollow grinds - it all depends on the knife and for what the knife is used for. I like the Leafstorm, for example, with its hollow grind - a decent knife small knife design.
