District court again rules ‘pretzel crisps’ TM is generic
Snack maker Frito-Lay has convinced a district court judge that a Snyder’s-Lance application for the “Pretzels Crisps” trademark is generic, affirming a prior trademark trial and appeal board (TTAB) decision.
The application, filed by Snyder’s wholly-owned subsidiary Princeton Vanguard, was cancelled by the TTAB in a precedential ruling following a review sparked by an opposition from Frito-Lay.
Now, Frito-Lay has managed to convince the US District Court for the Western District of North Carolina that the combination of the generic terms “Pretzel” and “Crisps” did not bring “additional meaning” in the minds of consumers.
Both parties originally moved for a summary judgment of the issue, which the District Court denied due to both parties having waived their right to present at trial, deciding instead to file a final order and judgment affirming the cancellation.
Despite the brand recognition of Pretzel Crisps, judge Kenneth Bell said: “No matter how much commercial success the product enjoys, plaintiffs (Vanguard and Snynder’s) are not entitled to monopolise the common name of the product being sold.”
Booking.com argument
As generic marks do not distinguish a particular product or service but broader categories, they cannot obtain trademark protection, even when the putative mark holder has successfully “established consumer recognition of an otherwise generic term”, the court claims.
The court cited the US Supreme Court ruling on Booking.com as key case law on generic marks. In the case of marks that are a “combination of generic elements”, the mark is still generic if “the combination yields no additional meaning to consumers capable of distinguishing goods and services”, according to the Booking.com ruling.
“Unlike booking.com (the combined mark identifies a specific company at that internet address) and American Airlines (consumers understand that there are numerous separately named airlines in the United States and don’t refer to them collectively as ‘American Airlines’), there is no additional meaning that results from the combination of the generic terms that make up pretzel crisps in the minds of consumers.”
Case history
Princeton Vanguard first filed a US trademark application for pretzel crisps in 2004 but it was denied registration on the grounds that the mark was “merely descriptive”.
Following amendments, Princeton filed another application in 2009. This was noticed by Frito-Lay, which filed an opposition to the application. The opposition went to trial before the TTAB, leading to a precedential cancellation ruling in 2014.
Princeton did not appeal the TTAB ruling to the Federal Circuit, instead filing a civil action to the district court seeking a review of the opinion in 2017.
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