New York Trademark Attorney Blog
A recent Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) decision from last week emphasizes the detailed analysis required when comparing a composite mark (in this case words and a design) to a design mark. Here, the applicant, the University of Houston System (“Applicant”) is seeking to register a mark, UHCL Hawks and a design of a flying hawk (view here) for various goods in international classes 16, 21, 25, and 41. Retail Royalty Company (“Opposer”) filed a Notice of Opposition based on the ground of likelihood of confusion based on its ownership of U.S. Registration 3878197 (hereinafter “Flying Eagle Mark”) a design image of a flying eagle (view here). Opposer’s Flying Eagle Mark is registered for various goods in class 3 (creams and perfumes etc.), 18 (handbags and wallets etc.), 25 (various apparel), and 35 (retail store services featuring clothing, sunglasses, jewelry etc.). Opposer claims rights in prior registered marks for AMERICAN EAGLE OUTFITTERS and “AMERICAN EAGLE family of marks” for a broad range of lifestyle products.
Opposer did not directly argue that its mark was “famous”, but did argue the Flying Eagle Mark was “strong and entitled to broad protection”. Opposer also stated that its mark has been used in widespread and extensive advertising and the company maintains strong sales in relationship to the branded goods. These statements were supported by substantial evidence. The net U.S. sales for the years 2010-2015 were over $3 Billion. However, the evidence showed that Opposer’s Flying Eagle Mark does not have a strong commercial presence or consumer recognition except with retail clothing goods and services.
Conversely, Applicant argued that the Flying Eagle Mark was not strong, but instead was dramatically diluted by the existence of numerous third party bird design marks for general retail including clothing. Applicant argued that purchasers have become conditioned to numerous bird marks in the marketplace and are capable of distinguishig the sources by small differences in the marks. Among the co-existing marks are bird designs of Hollister (owned by Abercrombie and Fitch) and Eddie Bauer. The Board reviewed numerous bird design marks submitted by the Applicant (120 were submitted) and referenced twelve in the decision stating,” we find the following as bearing the closest resemblance to Opposer’s (or Applicant’s) bird logo.” And of the twelve only a few were identified as bearing a strong resemblance. The Board stated that to assess the strength of the mark, they evaluate the inherent strength based on the trademark alone and also the commercial strength based on marketplace recognition by consumers.