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TTAB Affirms Mere Descriptiveness Refusal of "AUTOPROBE" for Soil Sampling Machines and Related Services

The mark AUTOPROBE may bring to mind a trip to Lovers' Lane, or maybe a UFO abduction movie, but the Board found it to be merely descriptive of "self-powered, mobile soil sampling machines" and of "agricultural services, namely, soil sampling, testing, and analysis." I think this case deserves a slot in our WYHA collection. Do you? In re AgRobotics, LLC, Serial No. 77138973 (May 20, 2009) [not precedential].Examining Attorney John D. Dalier relied on dictionary definitions of "auto" and "probe," and asserted that Applicant's goods feature an "automatic self propelled probing function," that the goods are capable of automatically "extracting soil from the probe itself and properly storing each soil sample;" and that, presumably ?the services will feature the use of self propelled probing devices to obtain research data...continue to full post

Full post as published by The TTABlog on June 05, 2009 (boomark / email).