We’re excited to share a pretty big milestone for Virtual Pizza Academy:
Virtual Pizza Academy® is officially a federally registered trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) — for both our name and our logo.
That little ® might not look like much, but to us, it represents something much bigger.
From an Idea to a Brand
When we started Virtual Pizza Academy, the idea was simple: create a better way for people to learn how to make great pizza at home.
We wanted something more interactive than watching another prerecorded YouTube video. We wanted students to be able to see the process up close, understand why each step matters, ask questions in real time, and learn alongside other pizza makers.
What started as an idea has grown into a community of more than 1,800 students across 40+ countries and five continents.
Along the way, VPA has become much more than a collection of pizza classes.
It has become a brand.
And now, that brand is officially protected.
Virtual Pizza Academy® — Officially Registered
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted federal trademark registrations covering both the Virtual Pizza Academy® wordmark and the Virtual Pizza Academy logo.
For a small business, receiving a federal trademark registration is an exciting milestone. It recognizes the identity we've spent years building and gives us additional protection as Virtual Pizza Academy continues to grow.
More importantly, it helps ensure that when you see the Virtual Pizza Academy® name and logo, you know exactly who is behind it.
Jim Mirabelli of NEPA Pizza Review and Jim Henry of JimmyHank Pizza — along with the instructors, partners, and pizza community that have helped us build VPA into what it is today.
Built One Pizza at a Time
There wasn't some giant master plan when VPA began.
There was pizza.
There were cameras.
There were a lot of questions.
And there was a belief that learning pizza could be more fun when people actually got to participate.
Since then, we've taught everything from Detroit Style and Pan Fried Sicilian to New Haven Apizza, Old Forge Pizza, New York Style, outdoor oven techniques, gluten-free pizza, bagels, stromboli, calzones and plenty more.
We've experimented, improved our production, added new instructors, worked with incredible brands and, most importantly, learned alongside thousands of pizza makers.
Every class, every question in the chat, every pizza photo a student sends us, and every person who comes back for another class has helped shape what Virtual Pizza Academy® has become.
What Changes?
For our students?
Not much.
We're still going to obsess over dough.
We're still going to debate fermentation, cheese, sauce, pans, ovens and whether there's such a thing as too much frico.
We're still going to make mistakes on camera occasionally.
And we're still going to answer your questions live.
You'll just start seeing one small addition to our name:
Virtual Pizza Academy®
Because after a lot of paperwork, patience and pizza, we've officially earned the ®.
Thank You for Helping Us Build VPA
A trademark protects a name and a logo.
But the people behind that name are what give it value.
So this milestone belongs in part to every student who has taken a class, returned for another one, recommended VPA to a friend, tagged us in a pizza, asked a question during a live class, or simply followed along with what we're building.
We're incredibly grateful for the pizza community that has supported Virtual Pizza Academy from the beginning.
And we're just getting started.
Here's to the next class, the next pizza and the next chapter of Virtual Pizza Academy®.
— Jim Mirabelli & Jim Henry
Co-Founders, Virtual Pizza Academy®
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