Decisions · 86356713
In re Calphalon Corp.
Serial No. 86356713 · Decided 2017-03-20 · Other
What happened
Refusal affirmed — the Board found SHARPIN for knife blocks with built-in automatic sharpeners merely descriptive because it is the phonetic equivalent of ‘sharpen’ and immediately describes the products' sharpening function, and the applicant’s mid-application switch to the SharpIN spelling could not add a second meaning the plain-text mark does not have.
The marks
Applicant
SHARPIN (standard characters); Applicant amended the drawing during prosecution to render it as "SharpIN," but the Board held the amendment did not change the mark from standard character to special form
"Cutlery knife blocks which incorporate built-in sharpeners that automatically sharpen knives," in International Class 21
Why this decision is significant
Precedential on two recurring issues: novel misspellings that are phonetic equivalents of descriptive words remain descriptive, and a standard-character drawing amendment (SHARPIN→SharpIN) cannot manufacture a double entendre because standard-character marks are not limited to any particular display.
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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