By Tseng Wei-chen and Lin Ching-hua / Staff reportersThe trademark registration for Matsu’s “blue tears” (藍眼淚) — a natural nighttime phenomenon of fluorescent blue patches caused by the algae Noctiluca scintillans that are visible from the shore from April to August — might be canceled, the Intellectual Property Office said yesterday. It is inappropriate for “blue tears” to have word mark protection, Hong said, adding that the office would cancel its registration. It said word mark protection for “blue tears” was obtained by three people of the county government for usage on four types of products: pastries, tea leaves, popsicles and glass products. They succeeded in obtaining trademark protection because they applied when the county government was eagerly promoting the “blue tears” for tourism purposes and the name was not yet protected, an office official said. He asked whether the office had intentionally made it hard for the Taipei City Government to obtain trademark protection for the mascot.

Source: Taipei Times April 18, 2018 15:56 UTC