Decisions · 86454424
In re Serial Podcast, LLC
Serial No. 86454424 · Decided 2018-03-26 · Other
What happened
The refusal to register Serial Podcast’s black-and-white logo mark — the word SERIAL in outlined letters, each letter inside a separate rounded-corner rectangle — was partially overturned: the logo as a whole can be registered as a brand (with a note that the word SERIAL alone is not protected), because national parodies by Saturday Night Live and Sesame Street, plus unauthorized merchandise copying the logo, showed the public recognizes the distinctive visual design as pointing to a single source.
The marks
Applicant
SERIAL (word and design: the word 'SERIAL' in outlined letters, with each letter placed in a rectangle with rounded corners; color not claimed as a feature of the mark)
"entertainment in the nature of an ongoing audio program featuring investigative reporting, interviews, and documentary storytelling" in International Class 41
Why this decision is significant
Establishes that national television parody (Saturday Night Live) and broadcast parody (Sesame Street) of a composite mark are highly significant evidence of acquired distinctiveness, and that a composite logo containing a generic word can achieve registration under Section 2(f) with a disclaimer of the generic component.
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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