Decisions · 86293054
In re Jonathan Sibony
Serial No. 86293054 · Decided 2021-10-14 · Other
What happened
Refusal reversed — the Board found REPUBLIC OF LONDON for clothing is not primarily geographically deceptively misdescriptive, because the phrase names a place that does not exist: ‘Republic of London’ as a whole is a fanciful, incongruous composite whose primary significance is not a real geographic location.
The marks
Applicant
REPUBLIC OF LONDON (standard characters)
"belts for clothing; blazers; blouses; capris; coats; dresses; jeans; pants; pullovers; shirts; skirts; suits; sweaters; t-shirts; ties" in International Class 25
Why this decision is significant
Precedential threshold holding on the first prong of the Section 2(e)(3) test: a composite that pairs a real place name (LONDON) with an inaccurate political descriptor (REPUBLIC OF) can escape refusal because its primary significance is a fictitious place; the Board declined to dissect the mark to reach LONDON alone.
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
Read the opinion and every filing on the Board's own docket. The summary above is our paraphrase, not a quotation from the opinion. The opinion is the authority.
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Provenance — Written from the opinion; research-significance tier confirmed.
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