Decisions · 86297488
In re Odd Sox LLC
Serial No. 86297488 · Decided 2019-09-30 · Other
What happened
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board refused registration of Odd Sox LLC’s trade dress — the shape of its sock packaging (an elongated rectangular card with a single pair of socks hanging side-by-side, toes facing forward) — because that packaging shape is too common in the sock industry to tell consumers where the socks come from, and even if it were not common enough to be ‘generic,’ it still lacks the distinctiveness required to function as a brand identifier without word markings.
The marks
Applicant
Three-dimensional product packaging trade dress -- elongated rectangular hanger displaying a single pair of socks side-by-side with toes flattened forward
Socks (International Class 25)
Why this decision is significant
Precedential decision that expressly extends the product-design genericness standard to product packaging trade dress for the first time, and adopts the two-step word-mark genericness inquiry for packaging; key authority for the proposition that packaging trade dress in common industry use is generic and unregistrable.
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.
Related decisions
In re Lizzo LLC
The Board reversed the failure-to-function refusal of 100% THAT BITCH for Lizzo LLC’s shirts, jackets, headwear and other clothing, finding that consumers would perceive the phrase - which…
88466264 · 2023-02-02 · 100% THAT BITCH (standard characters)
In re Lizzo LLC
The Board reversed the failure-to-function refusal of 100% THAT BITCH for Lizzo LLC’s t-shirts in this use-based companion application, finding on an essentially identical record that…
88466281 · 2023-02-02 · 100% THAT BITCH (standard characters)
In re Erik Brunetti
The Board affirmed the refusal to register FUCK (standard characters) for cell phone and laptop carrying cases, eyewear cases, spectacles and sunglasses, finding the word is such a…
88308426 · 2022-08-22 · FUCK (standard characters)
In re Erik Brunetti
The Board affirmed the refusal to register FUCK (standard characters) for jewelry, earrings, rings, bracelets, lapel pins, watches and watch accessories, finding that widespread third-party…
88308434 · 2022-08-22 · FUCK (standard characters)
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.
Who checked this
Not yet reviewed by an attorney. This summary is generated from coded data, and it says so until a lawyer has read it.
Provenance — Written from the opinion; research-significance tier confirmed.
General information about how trademark law works. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not make anyone your lawyer.