In re United Distillers, PLC
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
56 U.S.P.Q.2d 1220 (2000)
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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