Can you trademark an acronym? Acronyms are everywhere. They are like code language for those in the know. Even in the intellectual property world, our vernacular is filled with initialism. It can sound rather comical. “Yeah, my IP attorney said we got an OA with 101 and 103 rejections even though we filed PPH based […]
Articles Tagged: merely descriptive
What is a generic mark?
What is a generic mark? A generic mark is a word understood by the public as the common term for a product or service. For example, the word “apple” would be generic for the fruit. There is no more common term to refer to the apple fruit than simply “apple.” However, the term “apple” would […]
Trademark application rejections: Reasons why and how to respond
Why do trademark applications get rejected? Most trademark applications are not approved on their first go-around according to USPTO trademark statistics. Only 34.4% of TEAS Plus applications and 16.3% of TEAS RF applications receive a “first action approval” (as of the date of this post). That means that Office Actions are issued against the vast […]
What is a merely descriptive trademark?
What is a merely descriptive mark? Your trademark application might get rejected for a number of reasons. Near the top of the list of possible trademark rejections is mere descriptiveness. But, what exactly is a merely descriptive trademark? A merely descriptive mark “describes an ingredient, quality, characteristic, function, feature, purpose, or use of the goods […]