Decisions · 88466281
In re Lizzo LLC
Serial No. 88466281 · Decided 2023-02-02 · Other
What happened
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 consumers would associate the phrase - popularized by Lizzo’s hit song ‘Truth Hurts’ - with Lizzo rather than perceive it as a commonplace expression used by many different sources.
The marks
Applicant
100% THAT BITCH (standard characters)
Clothing, namely, t-shirts (International Class 25)
Why this decision is significant
Precedential reversal of a commonplace-expression failure-to-function refusal, holding that a phrase a famous artist popularized as a song lyric can function as a mark where most third-party uses reference the artist and no use predates her popularization. It is a leading authority for registering celebrity catchphrases and lyric-derived marks and for the principle that lyrics are attributed to the performing artist rather than the songwriter.
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.
Who checked this
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