expVC.com | News about: Internet | Digital

The Federal Circuit said:

A generic term ‘is the common descriptive name of a class of goods or services
The critical issue in genericness cases is whether members of the relevant public primarily use or understand the term sought to be protected to refer to the genus of goods or services in question
Genericness is determined according to the two-step Ginn test: First, what is the genus of goods or services at issue? Second, is the term sought to be registered or retained on the register understood by the relevant public primarily to refer to that genus of goods or services?
Also noted: stylized nature of the mark cannot save it from ineligibility as generic.

30 June 2016