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[sttmichalik]

I was wondering if one can trademark a letter out of an alphabet.  Specifically speaking, the D that is used on the Detroit Tigers baseball hat.  I believe the font is OLD ENGLISH.  

Is is possible that some entity holds right to the usage of that letter/font?

[Bill Richards]

Check out:
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=vij7j2.4.1

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=vij7j2.7.31
There are many others.  Just take a look at the PTO website:  http://www.uspto.gov/#

Good Luck!
Note, however, the use of the letters as trademarks is restricted to certain goods and services.  A trademark denotes source and must be used in that way.

[stttmichalik]

I appreciate the repsonse Bill. Unfortunately, that site is spilling over with information that it's difficult to navigate.

Knowing what you know about the letter in question, what would you phathom to guess? Is that "D" public domain?

regards, SM

[Bill Richards]

For a trademark to fall into the public domain, it must no longer represent the source of goods or services as applied to the goods/services of the registration.  As for those covered by the "D" of the Detroit Tigers, I suspect they're not at all in the public domain.  That doesn't mean, however, the "D" couldn't be used as a trademark in another context.
Are you talking about fonts and copyright??  There's thread here about that, too.

[JSonnabend]

Bill, for future reference, you can't post a link to TESS search results.  The search is only valid for a limited time, after which it expires.  You can, however, find the TARR entry for a mark and post that link.  TARR links do not expire.

- Jeff

[JSonnabend]

For a trademark to fall into the public domain, it must no longer represent the source of goods or services as applied to the goods/services of the registration.

That's actually not true.  For a mark to "fall into the public domain," the mark must become incapable of functioning as a source identifier for the goods or services in question (e.g., if it becomes generic), or such use must be abandoned.  The registration of that mark is separate and apart from rights in the mark itself.  A registration may "expire" for many reasons without affecting rights in the underlying mark.  

Bill's answer confuses tm registrations with tm rights -- two different things.

- Jeff

[Bill Richards]

Jeff's correct.  I did not mean to say that the mark must be registered to be valid.  Conversely, just because it's not registered does not mean it's not valid.