As plenty of people (including you) have pointed out, that’s not exactly specific. It’s about as generic a trademark application as I can imagine.
I think for a non-technical audience, a headline that says files for a trademark on “THE” is sufficiently nice and accurate, especially given that the article states that’s in relation to clothing and links to the application in question. It’s a headline. It’s supposed to give you an idea of what the article is about and make you want to read it.
I appreciate a debate about the nuances of intellectual property law as much as the next legally-inclined nerd but is this really an argument worth having?
I can’t see anything in Cory’s article which is actually wrong apart perhaps from the bit about it not surviving examination.
Given that, as I understand it, the current stance is “allow anything that isn’t challenged, people can always apply to have it removed later”, it may well be granted if not challenged.
