Germany: Top brands prefer television advertisement
Business website Boerse Express reports that according to a new study conducted by SevenOne Media, top brands increasingly invest their advertising budget in television marketing. The study looked at 22 award winning German and international brands that market their products in Germany and found that, on average, they spend about two thirds of their marketing budget on television advertisement and only 20 per cent in print advertising. By way of example: McDonald's spends 77,4 per cent of its advertising budget on television marketing, whereas Coca-Cola spends 81,4 per cent and Danone spends almost its whole budget on tv ads, that is 97,7 per cent of its advertisement budget.

Germany: More polar bear news
The "Flocke" madness has reached the Community level. Community trade mark application "Flocke" (word mark) in class 28 in the name of toy manufacturer Margarete Steiff GmbH, Germany. While we reported yesterday that the Nuremberg Zoo intends to market polar bear baby "Flocke" moderately, the Berlin Zoo seems to have taken a more bold approach with its polar bear Knut: German trade mark "Knut" (word/device mark) in the name of Zoologischer Garten Berlin AG covers classes 03, 04, 05, 08, 09, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 35, 39, 41, 42 and 43.
Attempts of "political" trade mark'ing from the USPTO's website
We are all captivated by the politicial developments in the US so looking over the big pond seems to be a worthwile idea. Therefore, as an exception some non-European trade mark treats from the USPTO's website. Please note that the creative applications listed below have been refused by the USPTO - for very obvious reasons:

HILLARY SCHMILLARY
HILLARY SHRILLARY
SHUT UP HILLARY
BEAT HILLARY
HILLARY HAPPENS
HILLARY CLINTON IS POLITICALLY INCORRECT
HILLARY ROCKS
HILLARY MAGIC
LOVE BUSH? VOTE HILLARY.
BILLARY '08
HILLARY IS THE WRONG WOMAN
WHAT THE HILL-ARY THINKING DON'T DROP A TICKING O-BAMA ON U.S. SOIL

However, not only Hillary Clinton has been the subject of creative 'trade mark'ing' efforts...
OBAMA -- O BABY!
NO DRAMA WITH OBAMA
BEARACK OBAMA
OBAMA SO PHAT
OBAMA BIN LADEN
OBAMA NOT YOUR MAMA FOR PRESIDENT IN 2008
OBAMA VS OSAMA IN 2008
AN OBAMANATION!

Bulgaria: Trade mark protection for "Strandja" region
Finally, the Bulgarian newssite news.bg reports of plans to establish a trade mark for the Strandja region in Bulgaria. According to news.bg