Last year the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office saw the most applications since 2000, with a large increase in green trademarks, according to the Dechert law firm.

Over 300,000 applications for new trademarks - brand names, logos and tag lines - were made in 2007. While overall filings increased 10 percent, environmentally-themed applications saw bigger jumps.

Applications with the word "green" more than doubled from 2006 to 2007, from 1,100 to 2,400; there were some 900 applications each filed with "clean" and "eco" (up from 800 for "clean" and around 450 for "eco"), and trademarks with "environment" or "enviro" went up from 325 to 450.

Other words that saw some of the largest jumps in applications were "earth" (increasing 60 percent from 550 to 900), "planet" (a 50 percent increase to more than 400) and "organic" (going from 450 to 700 applications, a 57 percent increase).

Although the increase in applications shows there's more business movement in greening (or greenwashing) products, advertising campaigns and companies, not all the trademarks will survive. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office saw various duplicate applications for phrases such as "green is the new black" and "clean & green."