Beyond Milk, Beyond Eggs, Beyond Tuna... trademark applications highlight broad scope of Beyond Meat's innovation pipeline

17-Aug-2021 - Last updated on 17-Aug-2021 at 16:08 GMT

Trademark applications filed with the USPTO suggest Beyond Meat's innovation pipeline stretches well beyond burgers... Image credit: Beyond Meat

Beyond Meat’s filings with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) reveal the broad scope of the company’s innovation pipeline, with trademark applications over the past couple of years spanning everything from Beyond Milk and Beyond Eggs to Beyond Crab, Beyond Jerky, and Beyond Tuna.

The USPTO’s public records show that Beyond Meat Inc. has filed 109 trademark applications since 2012, including Beyond Bar, Beyond Ham, Beyond Fish, Beyond Shrimp, Beyond Lamb and Beyond Eggs.

Beyond Milk

The most recent application – filed on August 12, 2021 - is for Beyond Milk, which is intended to cover “categories of food products made of milk substitutes based on vegan substances; milk; milk products; milk based on or made of plants, nuts, seeds, oat, wheat or rice; milk products based on or made of plants, nuts, seeds, oat, wheat or rice; milk powders.”

The registrations also span bases for making milk shakes; coffee or tea beverages with milk or milk substitutes; and non-alcoholic beverages; vegetable based, nut based and soy based beverages.

The application, which has not yet been assigned to an examiner, was filed nine months after Beyond Meat filed a notice of opposition with the USPTO challenging a trademark application from German confectionery company Katjes Fassin GmbH + Co. KG in spring 2020 to register BEYOND MILK for candy products.

In its opposition filing, Beyond Meat argued that it had developed valuable goodwill with respect to the BEYOND family of marks and had “created, in the minds of the general public, an exclusive association between the BEYOND trademark” and its products.

Were Katjes to sell products under the BEYOND MILK trademark, they were “likely to be confused with Opposer’s trademark, BEYOND MEAT, and its family of BEYOND marks because Applicant’s designation and Opposer’s trademark and trademark application are highly similar in appearance, sound, meaning and overall commercial impression,” argued Beyond Meat.

Beyond Cheese

Beyond Meat has also clashed with a British company over the Beyond Cheese trademark, with the USPTO rejecting Beyond Meat’s October 2020 application to register the Beyond Cheese trademark to cover cheese substitutes because of its similarity to a trademark registered in early 2019 by Beyond Cheese Ltd in the UK.

Beyond Meat then petitioned the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in January 2021 to cancel Beyond Cheese Ltd’s trademark registration on the grounds that the UK firm had “discontinued use of the BEYOND CHEESE mark and has no intent to resume such use.”

Impossible Foods... milk, cheese, yogurt, creamer...

Rival Impossible Foods – which told us last year that it is "working on all major categories of animal-derived foods, including steak and milk, fish, chicken and eggs,” has filed 64 trademark applications, including Impossible Meat, Impossible Cheesesteak, and Impossible, the latter spanning a wide range of plant-based meat and dairy substitutes including non-dairy cheese, cream, creamer, yogurt, milk, half and half, buttermilk, eggnog, sour cream, whipping cream, and whipped cream.

Beyond Meat has not commented on which of the above innovations it plans to commercialize next. The bulk of the applications are filed with an 'intent to use,' which means the company is not yet using the mark, but says it intends to do so.