Feds Reject Controversial Tennessee State Logo

Nashville (WDEF) Tennessee’s new state logo was named "The Pork of the Year" this week by an East Tennessee government watchdog group.

It coast $46,000 to create the new look, which has underwhelmed critics.

Now the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is refusing to accept it.

The agency declined to register the logo for a trademark.

The whole point of getting a Nashville design firm to create a new logo was the state couldn’t trademark the old one that was based on the state flag.

But the Patent office says the new version is "primarily geographically descriptive."

In other words, it is too close to the TN label people already use to describe Tennessee products.

The Governor’s office says it isn’t unusual for the patent office to negotiate changes in tradmark requests.

Tennessee has six months to convince them to accept the new logo.