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Precedential No. 38: Floyd Mayweather t.k.o.'d: TTAB Affirms Failure-to-Function Refusal of PAST PRESENT FUTURE for T-shirts

Undefeated boxing champion Floyd Mayweather, Jr., suffered a TTAB t.k.o. (trademark knock-out) in his bout to register the phrase PAST PRESENT FUTURE for "T-shirts." Applicant argued, inter alia, that "consumers recognize the PAST PRESENT FUTURE Mark as affiliated with Floyd Mayweather, and members of the purchasing public have come to recognize [it] as a trademark identifying Appellant and its services and goods." The Board, however, found that the phrase "would be perceived by purchasers and prospective purchasers as a widely used commonplace expression of a familiar concept and not as a source indicator for t-shirts." In re Mayweather Promotions, LLC, Serial No. 86753084 (October 29, 2020) [precedential] (Opinion by Judge Mark Lebow).In recent decisions, the Board has pounded into our heads the concept that "[w]idely used commonplace messages are those that merely convey ordinary, familiar concepts or sentiments and will be understood as conveying the ordinary concept or sentiment normally associated with them, rather than serving any source-indicating function...continue to full post

Full post as published by The TTABlog on November 04, 2020 (boomark / email).