Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[George]

USPTO reverses finding that the trademark is disparaging.  Any thought that it may be descriptive.

Political Gateway

[JimIvey]

Yeah, it's descriptive.  I don't think that's fatal, though.  What could be more descriptive that "Windows" or "Coca Cola" (for a cola beverage made from coca leaves)?

I once came across an opinion re the McDonald's mark, "two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun" from an ad campaign for the BigMac so catchy that I still remember it.  The bottom line was that the court kinda liked it, so it's not descriptive.  With sufficient cleverness and humor, descriptive appears to be okay -- it's not merely descriptive.

In the case of "Dykes on Bikes", I kinda like it.  It's got the rhyme and just a hint of self-disparagement to be tongue-in-cheek.  Has it got enough "extra" to not be merely descriptive?  I don't know.  This is one that I could see going either way.

In the cited article, Dykes on Bikes has been in use for 30 years -- not a bad case for "secondary meaning" too.

Regards.

[Isaac]

I think "merely descriptive" means descriptive terms that have not attained the secondary meaning that gives them their distinguishing power.  

I don't believe that terms that have innate distinguishing power (e.g. suggestive or fanciful marks) are conventionally refered to as "not merely descriptive".