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TTAB Cancels "EQUINE BODY WORKER" Registration For Lack of Acquired Distinctiveness

In a somewhat touching decision, for horses anyway, the Board granted a petition for cancellation of Equinology's Section 2(f) registration for the mark EQUINE BODY WORKER, finding that the mark lacks acquired distinctiveness for the services of "providing courses of instruction and educational testing in the field of equine massage." Registrant managed to fend off Petitioner Equine Touch Foundation's genericness claim, but its affirmative defense of unclean hands came up short. [One would hope that a horse would be massaged with clean hands! - ed.]. The Equine Touch Foundation, Inc. v. Equinology, Inc., Cancellation No. 92050044 (September 29, 2010) [not precedential].Genericness: The Board observed that the term "equine bodywork" is "decidedly generic," but what about EQUINE BODY WORKER, which Respondent apparently coined? Although it might be an "apt" name for a person offering the recited services, the CAFC has stated that "aptness is insufficient to prove genericness...continue to full post

Full post as published by The TTABlog on October 19, 2010 (boomark / email).