A local publisher moves forward with his efforts to re-brand St. Joseph as the “Tenderloin Capital of the World.” Jay Kerner of the Regular Joe newspaper this week received confirmation of his trademark application from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office:

“We are pleased to report that the mark has been issued a Notice Of Allowance in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on March 07, 2017,” according to a Notice of Allowance from the government.

Kerner is in discussions with several local non-profits with an eye toward setting up some kind of tenderloin event in the city.  “It will be a festival just like all the other festivals, except with more tenderloins,” Kerner said.

“We have six months to file what’s called a ‘statement of use’ with the trademark office,” he said, “but our next step is to pick a non-profit.”

As we reported earlier, Kerner says the designation is a natural.

“Because the Saltine cracker was invented here, and because we’ve been pork producers for generations, we believe that this was the place where the cracker first met the pork,” Kerner said.

He has set up a Facebook page for the event moving forward. Here’s a link.