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Precedential No. 29: TTAB Affirms 2(e)(1) Refusal of Japanese Term Meaning "Walking" for Footwear

During prosecution, Applicant Tokutake shot itself in the footwear when it provided an English translation of its Japanese-language mark shown immediately below: it translated the mark as "walking, a step." Because its identified goods were footwear, Examining Attorney Laura Gorman Kovalsky not surprisingly issued a Section 2(e)(1) mere descriptiveness refusal. The Board affirmed. In re Tokutake Industry Co., Ltd., Serial No. 79018656 (May 14, 2008) [Precedential].Applicant acknowledged that both the foreign characters and the English lettering "represent the same term." Because the word "walking" is at least merely descriptive of footwear, the Board next considered "whether the doctrine of foreign equivalents applies in this case."Under that doctrine, foreign words from common languages are translated into English to determine descriptiveness...continue to full post

Full post as published by The TTABlog on June 05, 2008 (boomark / email).