[E-trademarks] Trade Show booth as specimen

Wed Dec 13 17:44:50 EST 2023

Carla,

This is why I would have just submitted the photo on its own, and not the website page it was taken from.  A photo of the services being rendered should not depend on the source of the photo for its acceptability.  The trade show booth is the trade show booth, no matter who took a picture of it.  Yet another example of examiners not understanding the difference in specimens for goods vs. services, IMNSHO.

Getting off my soap box.

Susan L. Crane
Group Vice President, Legal
Intellectual Property, Brands & Marketing

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc.
22 Sylvan Way
Parsippany, NJ 07054
O (973) 753-6455
M (973) 879-3420
Susan.Crane at wyndham.com<mailto:Susan.Crane at wyndham.com>

From: E-trademarks <e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of carla calcagno via E-trademarks
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2023 5:24 PM
To: For trademark practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: carla calcagno <cccalcagno at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [E-trademarks] Trade Show booth as specimen

Hi Janet In my experience, the Examiners won't take "third party" shots of your advertising for services or displays associated with the goods. So I would have submitted your client's own picture of the trade show booth. Apart
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Hi Janet

 In my experience, the Examiners won't take "third party" shots of your advertising for services or displays associated with the goods. So I would have submitted your client's own picture of the trade show booth.

Apart from that the key issue for goods specimens is whether the trade show is considered a point-of-sale display.  See,  TMEP 904.03(g). In at least one case that I have not read in ages, flyers shown at a trade show were considered displays associated with the goods and thus considered acceptable as specimens.In re Ancha Elecs. Inc., 1 USPQ2d 1318 (TTAB 1986) (holding that a photograph showing an informational flyer or leaflet clearly depicting the mark and presented on the goods at a trade show exhibit was an acceptable display associated with the goods). But read this section, the USPTO will require you to jump through additional hoops when you file these types of specimens to show that these trade shows are point-of-sale displays for goods and not mere advertising.

I note that you sometimes say goods and sometimes say services in the email.  If the specimens were for services, they should have been accepted, without more, in my opinion, so long as the specimens were your own client's photos.

Good Luck!

Carla Calcagno

On Wed, Dec 13, 2023 at 2:32 PM Janet Satterthwaite via E-trademarks <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>> wrote:
Hello brain trust

We filed a use-based application for MARK for sales and marketing of [consumer goods].

The specimen was the mark prominently displayed on client's booth at an industry trade show.

The photo of the booth was from an industry blog.

The specimen has been refused, first, b/c the photo was in a third party blog (so???);

and second, because it does not show a direct association between the mark and the services.

How can that be? A booth at a trade show can only be for the purpose of sales and marketing of the goods. Moreover, the blog post described how the goods were displayed at the booth.

Has anyone encountered this before, before I dive in to the research?

thx

Janet

Janet F. Satterthwaite|Partner/ Chair, Trademark Practice|Potomac Law Group, PLLC

1717 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 1025

Washington, D.C. 20006
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