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How Energy Drink's "Purple Rain" Trademark Application Was Rejected

By Bridget H. Labutta
November 01, 2023

At the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), the trademark examining attorneys and administrative judges of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) are tasked with reviewing trademark applications to ensure that they are in good form and that the applied-for mark is eligible for federal trademark registration. Examiners and judges are guided in their review by several policies including the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §1051 et seq., the federal statute governing trademark law in the United States and the USPTO's trademark rules of practice and trademark manual of examining procedure or TMEP, among others.

The TMEP is a publicly available document that serves as an excellent resource for actual and potential trademark applicants, registrants and their attorneys. It is accessible online and easily searchable. The TMEP incorporates the Lanham Act and identifies all important application details, including what must be included in an original or renewal application, who is entitled to register a mark and whether they must be represented by an attorney, and what kind of mark is eligible for federal trademark registration versus what kind of mark is prohibited.

Yet, there are still a large number of applications that the examiners and judges must reject because the application does not conform to one or more conditions set forth in the Lanham Act or TMEP. While some of these rejections are considered informalities and usually easily overcome, such as a missing state of incorporation or an overbroad identification of goods, other rejections are substantive and more difficult to navigate.

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