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TTAB Dubiously Finds "SOCK-UM" for a Parlor Game Confusingly Similar to "ROCK'EM SOCK'EM ROBOTS" for Action Games

By John L. Welch

In what it readily acknowledged was a "close case," the Board sustained a Section 2(d) opposition brought by Mattel, Inc. against registration of the mark SOCK-UM for a "game where a labeled mat is placed on the ground or floor, participants position themselves on the mat and volley a sock back and forth from one half of the mat to the other half of the mat." The Board found the applied-for mark confusingly similar to the registered marks ROCK'EM SOCK'EM ROBOTS and ROCK'EM SOCK'EM for, inter alia, action games. Mattel, Inc. v. Briden, Opposition No. 91160087 (January 30, 2008) [not precedential].The Board first rejected Mattel's assertion that its mark ROCK'EM SOCK'EM ROBOTS is famous. Although the mark has been used for several decades, the record did not include sales and advertising figures for most of the period...continue to full post

Full post as published by The TTABlog on February 15, 2008 (boomark / email).