TTAB Posts March 2016 Hearing Schedule
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has scheduled six (VI) oral hearings for the month of March, as listed below. Four of the hearings will be held in the East Wing of the Madison Building, in Alexandria, Virginia. The other two will be held at particular law schools, indicated below, as part of the PTAB/TTAB Stadium Tour Program. Briefs and other papers for these cases may be found at TTABVUE via the links provided.
March 1, 2016 - 11 AM: In re Crocs, Inc., Serial No. 86096875 [Section 2(d) refusal of FIND YOUR FUN for "on-line retail store services featuring footwear, socks, apparel, hospital scrubs, hats and headwear, bags, jewelry, pencil cases, phone and mp3 cases, shoe ornaments, sunglasses and eyewear," in view of the registered mark FIND YOUR FUN! for various marketing and advertising services].
March 1, 2016 - 9:20 AM [University of Missouri School of Law, Columbia, Missouri]: In re Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Serial No. 77199918 [Refusal to register CHI for "Investment services, namely, providing futures, options contracts related to hurricanes for trading on an exchange" on the ground that applicant's specimen of use fails to show trademark use].
March 4, 2016 - 11:20 AM [University of Utah - S.J. Quinney College of Law, Salt Lake City, Utah]: Retail Royalty Company v Hawke & Company Outfitters LLC, Opposition No. 91197848 [Opposition to registration of the mark shown first below, for "Jackets, shirts, pants, swimwear, socks, hats, belts and scarves," on the ground of likelihood of confusion with the three marks shown next below, for various clothing items].
March 15, 2016 - 10 AM: In re Volcano Corporation, Serial No. 85761716 [Section 2(d) refusal of DEFINE for "Medical and scientific research, namely, conducting clinical trials for others relating to measuring physiology using a pressure guide wire in percutaneous coronary intervention procedures, namely, clinical trials conducted by interventional cardiologists for analyzing and comparing data from current and new techniques employed by interventional cardiologists that measure physiological coronary and peripheral pressure by inserting pressure guide wires featuring small sensors into femoral and radial arteries to determine the severity of coronary and peripheral lesions during percutaneous coronary intervention procedures and whether coronary stenoses require further treatments, for the propose of exploring new indications in stable and unstable coronary artery disease, peripheral arterial disease and neurology and for the purpose of exploring economic outcomes of physiologic indices, all for the eventual improvement of diagnosing coronary and peripheral vascular disease by interventional cardiologists," in view of the identical mark registered for "medical and scientific research, namely, conducting clinical trials and clinical studies relating to pharmaceutical preparations for human use"].
March 15, 2016 - 11 AM : In re Modern Woodmen of America, Serial No. 86125313 [Section 2(e)(1) mere descriptiveness refusal of FRATERNAL FINANCIAL for "Annuity underwriting; Banking; Financial administration of retirement plans; Financial advice; Financial analysis and consultation; Financial forecasting; Insurance agencies in the field of life insurance; Insurance agency and brokerage; Investment advisory services; Issuance and administration of annuities; Life insurance underwriting," and denial of Section 2(f) claim].
March 15, 2016 - 11:30 AM: In re Magnesita Refractories Company, Serial Nos. 77873477 and 85834316 [Refusals to register the mark MAGNESITA for "refractory products not made primarily of metal ..." and for "Providing information via a global computer network on constructing, maintaining, and repairing refractory apparatus using refractory product"on the ground of genericness. The English translation of the Spanish or Portuguese word "MAGNESITA" is "MAGNESITE" or "MAGNESIA."]
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TTABlog note: See any WYHA?s here? A WYHO?
Text Copyright John L. Welch 2016.
posted by John L. Welch @ 3/01/2016
2 comments
2 Comments:
I won't opine on the outcome of the FIND YOUR FUN appeal, but I do believe the Board is going to be decidedly unhappy with the examining attorney's handling of the third-party registrations upon which he relies. The examining attorney made of record 76(!) third-party registrations but at no point in his appeal brief or his three Office Actions did he actually discuss any of them. Moreover, the examining attorney appears to concede that at least some of them are irrelevant. In other words, the examining attorney expects the Board to read through a couple hundred pages of third-party registrations to try to determine which ones might be relevant.
The Board understandably hates that, and has made this point on several occasions. For example:
“We consider it poor examination practice to submit a large number of third-party registrations without regard to whether they have any probative value. Moreover, submitting a large number of third-party registrations without highlighting particularly relevant ones in the appeal brief is not helpful. . . . Since the Examining Attorney recognizes that he made of record numerous trademark registrations, he should have pointed out which ones were most probative, instead of submitting both probative and non-probative registrations and leaving it to the Board to sort through them.” In re 1st USA Realty Prof’ls. Inc., 84 U.S.P.Q.2d 1581, 1585 n.5 (T.T.A.B. 2007).
P.S.: If I were on the Board, I'd remand the FIND YOUR FUN application back to the examining attorney sua sponte with an instruction to identify the 10-15 third-party registrations he deems most relevant.
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