Deborah Gerhardt

Forum Replies Created

Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • in reply to: generic marks #362
    Avatar photoDeborah Gerhardt
    Participant

    You raise a super interesting question. Words change meaning over time– and sometimes the path to getting to current meaning matters for trademark law, but I don’t think it does here. Whether the word started out as as a descriptive word (e.g. “lite”) or a fanciful word coined just to be a mark (e.g. nylon, yo-yo, aspirin), the question for the court or PTO is what the word means now. I find the genus species test unusable in either case, but I really like the who are you/what are you test. Here’s why. Take “yoga.” Is it a genus including the different species of yoga, like Bikram, hot, ashtanga, flow, or is it a species of types of exercise? Either way, if I see that a studio is offering a yoga class, I know what the class is, but the term signals nothing about who offers it. So I find it much easier to classify this and most terms using that test.

    in reply to: Approach to first day of class #354
    Avatar photoDeborah Gerhardt
    Participant

    Has anyone used any of the USPTO’s videos? I’m thinking of assigning this one as background for the first day: http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/index.jsp

Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)