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Test Your TTAB Judgeability: Do You Know Trademark Mutilation When You See It?

Cutting Edge Beverages, LLC sought to register the mark shown to the right (the universal prohibition symbol) for "soft drinks, namely, carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks," and it submitted the specimen of use shown below. The Examining Attorney refused registration on the ground that the mark of the drawing is not a "susbstantially exact representation" of the mark as used on the specimen. In other words, the applied-for mark did not create a separate and distinct commercial impression, and therefore was a mutilation of the mark as actually used. How would you rule? In re Cutting Edge Beverages, LLC, Serial No. 77420157 (May 18, 2010) [not precedential}.Examining Attorney Andrew Rhim maintained that the wording is "an integral element of the mark as shown on the specimen," and further that consumers frequently encounter the universal prohibition sign together with words and so would likely view the design and words as integral parts of a unitary mark...continue to full post

Full post as published by The TTABlog on June 02, 2010 (boomark / email).