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TTAB Finds "RUSSKAYA" for Vodka Abandoned, Cancels Registration

Got your screwdriver? We're going to dismantle a 53-page TTAB opinion granting a petition for cancellation of a registration for the mark RUSSKAYA for vodka. The Board found that Petitioner A.V. Brands had established a prima facie case of abandonment based on at least three consecutive years of nonuse, and that Registrant Spirits International, B.V. failed to overcome Petitioner's case because it established neither an excuse for the nonuse nor a bona fide intent to resume use. A.V. Brands, Inc. v. Spirits International, B.V., Opposition No. 92043340 (March 31, 2009) [not precedential].Respondent Spirits' chain-of-title to the RUSSKAYA registration "originated in the early 1990s with the privatization of the previously state-owned Russian vodka industry, which itself occurred as part of the process of privatization in Russia and the former Soviet Union known as perestroika...continue to full post

Full post as published by The TTABlog on April 28, 2009 (boomark / email).