Month: February 2009

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And here’s one where they might’ve gotten it wrong

Meet Welch’s new AquaJuice. 

Now I know – you’re trying to figure out what it is.  Lemme guess – water and juice?  Well, the Welch’s website calls AquaJuice a “great-tasting naturally lighter juice beverage for kids.” (Emphasis mine).  The Motley Fool’s CAPS blog investigates a bit further and finds out the truth: the label reveals that the product is 50% juice, 50% water.  Eureka!  That’d be aqua + juice, wouldn’t it?

I guess not, if you’re the PTO.  Who knew the prefix “aqua-” had lost its status as the foreign equivalent of water and become suggestive?  Interestingly, Welch’s entered this statement in the record: “The term “AQUA” has no
meaning or significance in relation to the goods apart from that of a
trademark.”  Really?  And yet the PTO bought it.  Oh well.

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Sometimes the PTO does get it right!

PTO geek post alert!

One of the PTO’s most
exasperating grounds for refusal of registration is that the mark
sought to be registered is primarily merely a surname.  While for Smith
or Miller that may be fine, there are plenty of really obscure surnames
that the public really just doesn’t view as a surname.  (See this response to an initial refusal to register PUGET ENERGY on the ground that Puget is primarily merely a surname – it worked, by the way).

How delighted I was then to read David Lebovitz’s wonderful blog this morning: First, I learned about a new American chocolatier, Askinosie Chocolate. 
Then I started to wonder . . . I see the (R) registration notice, but
I’m wondering whether that’s a surname.  Sounds like “Ashkenazi,” the
word for Jews of Eastern European origin . . . wonder if the PTO had an
issue with that as a surname . . . Let’s check!

Well, I checked, and the PTO reflexively issued a surname refusal, but then backed off with little fuss. 
The applicant didn’t even have to argue the rareness of the name, which
suggests to me that the PTO had a pretty weak case; normally, even when
their database shows as few as 30-odd listings of a particular name
among millions, they’ll raise the refusal.

So bravo to all, and now it’s time to track down that chocolate!