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CAFC Vacates TTAB's "MOSKOVSKAYA" Vodka Ruling, Clarifies 2(e)(3) Materiality Test

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has vacated the TTAB's decision in the MOSKOVSKAYA case (TTABlogged here), in which the Board found the mark to be primarily geographically deceptively misdescriptive of vodka. (TTAB decision here). The CAFC ruled that the Board had improperly applied the materiality test of Section 2(e)(3) because it failed to consider whether a substantial portion of all relevant consumers (not just Russian speakers) is likely to be deceived. And so the court remanded the case to the Board for proper application of that test. In re Spirits International, N.V., Appeal No. 2008-1369 (Fed. Cir. April 29, 2009) [precedential].Doctrine of Foreign Equivalents: The CAFC's decision in Palm Bay gave rise to some confusion about how the doctrine of foreign equivalents is to be applied...continue to full post

Full post as published by The TTABlog on April 30, 2009 (boomark / email).