As a trademark practitioner, it is important to carefully review 2(d) reversals by the Board since they occur infrequently. Approximately 90 percent of likelihood of confusion refusals are affirmed. In a recent reversal by the Board, a number of factors contributed to the decision to allow registration, but in my…
In a recent Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“Board” or “TTAB”) decision, the Board reversed the Examiner’s refusal to register the mark YUMMIES and Design (a winking smiley face wearing a crown) for Latin American style food products, namely, processed flavored plantains slices, processed flavored yucca chips, fried pork with…
The USPTO and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB” or the “Board”) have been trending towards refusing marks and affirming refusals where the trademarks are legally identical, and where the goods are complementary, or in other cases where the goods are intrinsically related. The burden is on the Applicant…
Once an Examining Attorney refuses a trademark application on the grounds of likelihood of confusion (2(d) grounds), it is unlikely the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB” or the “Board”) will reverse the refusal. Statistics demonstrate that approximately nine out of ten times, the Board will affirm a likelihood of…
Since the precedential decision of In re Bay State Brewing Co., 119 USPQ2d 1958 (TTAB 2016), the Board has more carefully reviewed Consent Agreements. Some may say the TTAB has since been scrutinizing Consent Agreements, seeking to find very detailed reasons for why confusion will not occur between two sources in…
In a very recent Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) decision, there was a reversal of a 2(d) refusal. See our webpage entitled, Likelihood Of Confusion Refusals, for more information on the likelihood of confusion analysis and the DuPont factors. The case here involved the marks MMD & Design …
Earlier this summer the Board relied on the “Something More” standard in reversing a refusal to register a trademark for beer. See In re Iron Hill Brewery, LLC, Serial No. 86682532 (July 28, 2017). The Applicant was seeking to register the mark CANNIBAL in standard characters for beer. There was…
It appears that more often than not the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board” or the “TTAB”) issues favorable decisions for the big corporations. However, this one came down against Williams-Sonoma Inc. (the “Applicant”) last month. See In re Williams-Sonoma, Inc., Serial No. 86092589 (June 28, 2017), where the…
Applicant sought to register the mark BUNGEE BLAST for a foam flying toy and hand-powered non-mechanical toy in class 28. The applicant applied for a standard character mark and disclaimed the term “BUNGEE”. The Examining Attorney refused the application citing a registration, BUNGEE GLIDERZ for toy airplanes, toy gliders, and…
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) decided this appeal a few days ago. The Board determined that the trademark PA’DENTRO when used in connection with liquor and liqueurs namely tequila, resembles the registrant’s mark ADENTRO for wines and causes confusion and/or deceives consumers under the Trademark Act. See…