According to The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, we should look for encoded messages either in Leonardo’s paintings or in words such as ‘sang real’ or ‘saint grail’.

The registered trademarks ‘SANGREAL’ and ‘SAINT GRAAL’ are both for alcoholic beverages.

At a close scrutiny, the words ‘earth’, ‘air’, ‘fire’, and ‘water’ can be identified. This is called an ambigram. This image is registered as a trademark for the territory of Bulgaria.

Two further examples of trademarks containing ambigrams with word elements: SUN and SINS.

(Left) An image of the mason symbols ‘trammel’ and ‘angle’ is registered as a Community trademark. (Right) The image of a rose and a cross is registered as a trademark under the Madrid Agreement for various countries.

The above trademark contains well-known religious symbols. At a close scrutiny, one can see the 99 names of Allah of the Koran.

This black-on-white pattern is called a QR (‘Quick Response’) code. The combination of the words ‘QR Code’ was registered as word Community trademark.

Our eyes or brain can scarcely distinguish among QR codes originating from different manufacturers.

Since 2011, these QR codes have been submitted as trademark requests: (1) TALKING LABEL, for a Community trademark registration, (2) ZNAP, for goods and services in Classes 29, 30, 32, 33, 35, and 41 …

…(3) FREND, for services in Classes 36, 38 and 42, and (4) Wiki Presi, for goods and services in Classes 35, 38 and 42.

These QR code trademark applications were rejected for lack of distinctive character by the OHIM and the German Patent and Trade Mark Office respectively.