In 2012, the M-22 route marker became the center of a legal and financial debate over whether a business can trademark a specific state highway route marker and prevent others from selling merchandise with the depiction of any other state highway route on it, not just the original one trademarked. In 2003, Matt and Keegan Myers began making and selling t-shirts and stickers featuring a close approximation of the M-22 route marker (they don't utilize the actual FHWA typeface for the numerals "22") and started using the slogan, "M-22 is not just a road; it is a way of life." They claimed it is "marked by the simplicity and appreciation for natural wonders such as bays, beaches and bonfires, dunes and vineyards, cottages, friends and family everywhere." �����Soon after Keegan was featured on the cover of Traverse magazine wearing one of the brothers' M-22 t-shirts in 2006, sales of the shirts and stickers bearing the M-22 route marker started taking off. Soon, the pair began working with other retailers in Leelanau Co to produce additional apparel and accessory lines, including coffee and an M-22 brand of wine. An M-22 "company store" was opened in November 2007 in downtown Traverse City as well and the brothers filed for trademark protection for their M-22 logo in 2010 to further support the branding effort. Meanwhile, Heidi Marshall and Mary Roberts of Route Scouts, LLC in Harbor Springs started making souvenirs using the M-119 route marker and even tried to trademark it. Their effort failed when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied the application when it responded that it was 'too similar to the M22 registered trademark."