Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Intellectual Property Law Blogs -> The TTABlog

Intellectual Property Law

: The TTABlog

Test Your TTAB Judge-Ability: Is "AUDIOTURD & Design" Scandalous Under Section 2(a)?

Applicant Greenfield Records sought to register the mark AUDIOTURD & Design for musical recordings, but the Examining Attorney issued a Section 2(a) refusal, maintaining that the mark is scandalous and therefore unregistrable. Greenfield argued that "the word 'turd' is used regularly by the public at large and can no longer be considered scandalous." What say you? In re Greenfield Records, LLC, Serial No. 77514177 (November 4, 2010) [not precedential].Greenfield also claimed that the "English translation of the word "turd" is "a contemptible person," and that AUDIOTURD "will immediately be seen as connoting a contemptible sounding piece of music."Examining Attorney Jessica A. Powers asserted that the mark is scandalous, "whether one looks at the primary or the secondary meaning of the word, and that the graphic drawing contained within the composite mark reinforces the offensive and vulgar connotation of excrement...continue to full post

Full post as published by The TTABlog on November 15, 2010 (boomark / email).