The Murphy Door Bed Co., Inc. v. Interior Sleep Systems, Inc.

William Murphy invented a fold-away wall bed and began marketing it as the "Murphy bed" through Murphy Door Bed Co. (MDBC) (plaintiff). The Patent and Trademark Office twice denied MDBC's applications to register "Murphy bed" as a trademark, finding the term had become generic through long public use as a synonym for any wall-folding bed, a finding the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board affirmed. When competitor Interior Sleep Systems (ISS) (defendant) began marketing its own foldaway bed using the term "Murphy bed," MDBC sued for common-law trademark infringement; the district court sided with MDBC, finding the term had acquired secondary meaning, and ISS appealed.