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Montana Senator Again Blocks "LAST BEST PLACE" Registrations

Montana Senator Max Baucus announced (here) on February 25th that he has once again included language in the fiscal year 2009 Omnibus appropriation bill that would prohibit the PTO from expending any funds toward registration of the mark LAST BEST PLACE. Former Senator Conrad Burns of the Big Sky State first championed in 2006, when Congress included a provision in the Department of Commerce appropriations bill that prohibited the use of any department funds to "register, issue, transfer or enforce any trademark of the phrase 'Last Best Place.'" After an unfavorable ruling at the district court level that the provision improperly circumvented the Lanham Act, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled in 2007 that Congress had properly acted to prevent registration of the mark and that the PTO had likewise acted properly in cancelling two registrations and suspending four applications and two oppositions proceedings involving the mark...continue to full post

Full post as published by The TTABlog on February 27, 2009 (boomark / email).