This Company Is Attempting To Trademark Lettuce Leaves

Some brands identify themself via unique product offerings, slogans, visuals, and just about anything else. On the other hand, Little Leaf Farms is trademarking its curly-shaped lettuce leaves as part of its brand.
 
While the consensus is that no two vegetables grow the same, let alone two lettuce leaves, the company is banking on its unique growing process and the fact that its Baby Crispy Green Leaf is instantly recognizable enough for the appeal to go through with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The trademark pending item in question is a rounded leaf that curls in on itself and has ruffled edges.

Per Fast Company, VP of marketing Linsay Hardie for the firm explained that customers often mentioned that they could recognize when a salad they were eating had lettuce from the Little Leaf Farms, whether they were dining at a friend’s house or a restaurant. This spurred the brand to try to lock in this unique shape.

On a side note, if you’re wondering if it was genetically enhanced to curl in such a manner, it was, in fact, not. Instead, it comes from a special type of seed that can grow into such shapes. That, mixed with the right amount of moisture, nutrients, and natural light, helps cultivate such curvy leaves.
 
Still, it’s not every day a vegetable gets trademarked. Usually, brands try to lock in something inherently unique to their brand, which can also be controlled in manufacturing, such as Kleenex, Tiffany blue, Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ slogan, and Ping Pong.

However, the brand (and its legal team) is remaining confident that it will win the appeal as the vegetable checks off the right boxes regarding trademark requirements. Before being approved, some of the conditions that need to be met include the fact that a pending mark of a company cannot be essential to the product’s use. In this case, the shape does not enhance its taste, nor is it vital to its purpose. 
 
Whether anything will flourish from this is yet to be seen. However, in the same report, Katherin Ann Rubino from the Caldwell Intellectual Property Law posited that if Little Leaf Farms can prove its distinct shape, it might obtain the mark.
 
 
 
[via Fast Company and The Packer, images via Little Leaf Farms/PR Newswire]