In re Newbridge Cutlery Co., No. 2013-1535, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 615 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 15, 2015) (Linn, J.). Click Here for a copy of the opinion.
On January 15, 2015, the Federal Circuit reversed a United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") decision rejecting a trademark for the name "Newbridge Home." Appellant, The Newbridge Cutlery Company, designs and sells homeware and giftware products using the mark "Newbridge Home," for which it filed an international registration with the World Intellectual Property Organization, and for which it later sought protection in the United States.
The Examiner of the U.S. application found that the mark could not be registered because it is geographically descriptive, given that the company is headquartered in Newbridge Ireland. Newbridge appealed to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ("TTAB"), which affirmed the Examiner's decision, finding that American consumers would associate with Newbridge's goods with Newbridge Ireland.
The Federal Circuit noted that geographical names have long been refused trademark protection, however, the Trademark Examiner must show that: (1) the mark sought to be registered is the name of a place known generally to the public, (2) the public would make a goods/place association, i.e., believe that the goods for which the mark is sought to be registered originate in that place, and (3) that the source of the goods is the geographic region named in the mark.
The Court found that the relevant public in this case was the American public that purchases the particular type of goods sold by Newbridge. To these consumers, Newbridge is not the name of a place that is generally known, because the geographic meaning is minor, obscure, or remote to the relevant public. The Court specifically rejected the USPTO's argument that mentions of Newbridge Ireland on Internet websites such as Wikipedia constituted sufficient evidence of the public's general knowledge, given the enormous amount of information available online. The Court further noted a lack of evidence that relevant consumers have meaningful knowledge of particular portions of Internet information, and that "it is simply untenable that any information available on the internet should be considered known to the relevant public." (emphasis added).
Accordingly, the Federal Circuit determined that Newbridge Ireland was not well-known enough to American consumers for the trademark to be ineligible for registration as a geographically descriptive term.
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