Decisions · 85700986
In re Loggerhead Tools, LLC
Serial No. 85700986 · Decided 2016-06-30 · Other
What happened
Refusal affirmed — the Board found Loggerhead’s animated motion mark showing its six-jaw ‘Bionic Wrench’ gripping motion to be functional product design that cannot be registered for hand tools, because the motion is the useful working of the tool itself, shown by an expired utility patent and the applicant’s own advertising touting the mechanism’s advantages.
The marks
Applicant
Motion mark depicting the product configuration of a hand tool in which six rectangular-shaped jaw-like elements of the circular head of a hand tool radially move in and out, symmetrically converging and diverging in a mechanical iris-type motion (broken/dotted lines not part of the mark, showing position/placement only)
"Hand tools, namely, gripping tools in the nature of wrenches and wire crimpers for sale through mass merchandisers to retail consumers," in International Class 8
Why this decision is significant
Precedential application of Section 2(e)(5) functionality and the Morton-Norwich factors to a motion mark depicting product configuration — an uncommon mark type — with the expired utility patent and the applicant’s own advertising treated as strong evidence of functionality.
Research significance is Trademark Valet's editorial rating of how useful a decision is to practitioners. It is not a statement of precedential weight — that is the separate Precedential field, which comes from the Board.
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The original record
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