Tennessee’s New Logo Refused

The State of Tennessee recently applied for U.S. trademark registration for a new logo it created with the help of it’s Governor Bill Haslam.

The new square logo features the white letters TN on a red field above a blue bar.

However, the U.S. Patent and trademark office has rejected the application under section 2(e)(2) for being geographically descriptive.

In an Office Action issued on 14 June 2015, the USPTO states that “registration is refused because the applied-for mark TN is primarily geographically descriptive of the origin of applicant’s services. TN is an abbreviation for Tennessee (see dictionary definition attached).  The applicant is the State of Tennessee and the place of business is in Tennessee.  Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that the services come from and are offered in Tennessee.

When there is no genuine issue that the geographical significance of a term is its primary significance, and the geographical place is neither obscure nor remote, a public association of the goods and/or services with the place is presumed if an applicant’s goods and/or services originate in the place named in the mark.”

Under U.S. trademark law, a mark is primarily geographically descriptive when the following is demonstrated:

 (1) The primary significance of the mark is a generally known geographic place or location;

 (2) The goods and/or services for which applicant seeks registration originate in the geographic place identified in the mark; and

 (3) Purchasers would be likely to make a goods-place or services-place association; that is, purchasers would be likely to believe that the goods and/or services originate in the geographic place identified in the mark. state’s prominent abbreviation doesn’t fall within trademark guidelines

The state has until December to submit arguments as to why the mark is not geographically descriptive.