Seems so. One of Obama’s slogans “Change Rocks”, which has been used for at least one Obama concert and fundraiser, is a registered trademark owned by a New York teen entrepreneur.

Stefan Doyno picked the name “Change Rocks” about three years ago, when he started a business to market his patent-pending invention of rings with interchangeable stones. He’s since come out with pendants and is planning a line of T-shirts.

Doyno, now 19 and a first-year student at SUNY-Buffalo, learned by Googling his company’s name that Obama’s camp used the “Change Rocks” trademark for a concert and campaign fundraiser on Dec. 7 in Chicago.

“I was shocked. I flipped out kind of because I was like, ‘Oh, no, someone else is using it,’ ” he said.

He called his lawyers, and they sent a letter on Dec. 18 to Obama’s national campaign manager, David Plouffe, that points out that the name “Change Rocks” is a registered U.S. trademark (No. 3,266,236) and that if Obama’s campaign sells T-shirts or other campaign memorabilia with the slogan, it could constitute an infringement.

Obama has had at least one other “Change Rocks” concert, in Des Moines, Iowa, on Dec. 29, according to a poster on the Iowa campaign headquarters Web site.

So far, neither the teen nor his lawyers have heard back from Obama’s campaign.

A search of the trademark system does, indeed, reveal that Doyno filed the trademark on October 7, 2005. Obama wouldn’t even announce his candidacy until February 2007. Note to Obama’s campaign: Next time, think about searching for the term before using it to raise money.

Bryan:

I’m bringing this up not to bash Obama, as the lawsuit isn’t likely to go anywhere, but to point out just how empty his campaign is. Once you get past the fluff and stuff that gets Chris Matthews weepy,there’s no there there. His slogans are generic as his lofty platitudes.