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In re United Distillers, PLC

Trademark Trial and Appeal Board

56 U.S.P.Q.2d 1220 (2000)

Intellectual Property
Relevant factsFree

United Distillers (plaintiff) sought to register "Hackler" for alcoholic beverages, advertising the term as referring to a historical nineteenth-century Irish flax worker and distiller rather than to anyone actually connected with the company; the examining attorney refused registration as primarily merely a surname, and United appealed.

IssueFree

Under the Lanham Act, may marks that are primarily merely a surname be registered as trademarks?

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