Decisions · 86325739
In re WAY Media, Inc.
Serial No. 86325739 · Decided 2016-06-03 · Other
What happened
The USPTO’s refusal to register the mark WORLD’S BIGGEST SMALL GROUP for radio and internet broadcasting services (Class 38) was upheld because none of the 18 pages of website and YouTube specimens showed the mark being used to identify WAY Media’s broadcasting services — instead, the mark appeared throughout as the name of a Bible-reading and devotion program, and the radio station’s call letters WAY-FM (not the applied-for mark) were the identifier consumers would associate with the broadcasting services.
The marks
Applicant
WORLD'S BIGGEST SMALL GROUP
radio broadcasting services; radio broadcasting; radio program broadcasting; internet broadcasting services; broadcasting radio programs via the internet; broadcasting of music via the internet, namely, delivery of digital music by electronic transmission; streaming of audio material on the internet; providing a website over a global computer network featuring information on radio broadcasting, in International Class 38
Why this decision is significant
Precedential specimen decision holding a program name is not a service mark for Class 38 broadcasting services even when the program airs on the applicant’s own station — reinforcing the TMEP content-versus-conduit distinction across 18 pages of specimens.
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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