One of the ways is through trademark searches.

It started a few years back. A member here e-mailed me privately and asked if I knew if there was a way we could look into trademarks. I can't remember who it was (sorry!). Since then it has been a matter of looking up American Girl registered trademarks. Other members here have found much better search terms than I knew how to use back then.

It's not always a for sure thing when something is trademarked, though. A lot of companies let their trademarks expire and the concepts never turn into products. There are some really interesting things AG has considered, including their own TV network (?) and an American Girl brand for boys.

If you want to try a search, just visit here:

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?...glish&p_d=trmk

It's so exciting to be the first person to know about something that might be new and upcoming! [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ December 16, 2005 11:56 AM: Message edited by: Melissa ]</font>