Decisions · 87419378
In re County of Orange
Serial No. 87419378 · Decided 2022-08-04 · Other
What happened
The Board refused Orange County, California’s circular emblem (mountain, field and three oranges) for its government services: federal law flatly bars registering the insignia of any municipality — and a county counts as a municipality — even when the county itself is the applicant.
The marks
Applicant
The "Circular Mark" (design mark): "a circle surrounding the words 'COUNTY OF ORANGE' on the top and 'CALIFORNIA' on the bottom with an image of a mountain, a field and three oranges set in the middle"; color not claimed; "COUNTY OF ORANGE CALIFORNIA" disclaimed
A wide range of services in seven classes, including: county government services, namely, providing information in the field of government affairs (International Class 35); maintaining parks, libraries, county offices, harbors and airports, namely, building maintenance (International Class 37); running and maintaining public services, namely, providing transport and storage of waste (International Class 39); county government services in the nature of education and entertainment services, such as, providing sport facilities and libraries (International Class 41); environmental testing and inspection services, evaluation and testing of real estate for the presence of hazardous material (International Class 42); providing public health care services (International Class 44); and providing law enforcement services, namely, police and civil protection services (International Class 45)
Why this decision is significant
Precedential first construction holding that a county is a ‘municipality’ under Section 2(b) and that an emblem adopted and used by a government can be a barred ‘insignia’ even though it was never designated the official seal — an absolute bar the government’s own consent cannot cure.
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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