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Appeal of "BANANA CHAIR" 2(e)(1) Refusal Bears Fruit at TTAB

In a rare unillustrated opinion authored by Judge Bucher, the Board reversed a Section 2(e)(1) refusal to register the mark BANANA CHAIR, finding it not merely descriptive of "furniture, chair." The Board concluded that "[a]lthough the chair has a curved shape that may suggest the shape of a banana, the chair does not in fact look like a banana, and the term Banana Chair does not imediately and directly describe the shape." In re Future First LLC, Serial No. 78769110 (December 22, 2008) [not precedential].The Examining Attorney contended that "banana chair" is the "common commercial name for a curved, legless rocking chair that is not associated with any one particular source." The PTO's evidence, however, was not convincing. It was unclear whether some of the website evidence was actually referring to Applicant's chair...continue to full post

Full post as published by The TTABlog on January 09, 2009 (boomark / email).