Comments on: Pee Like a Racehorse (or an Old Woman) http://www.bevlaw.com/bevlog/malt-beverage/pee-like-a-racehorse-or-an-old-woman?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pee-like-a-racehorse-or-an-old-woman Distilling a million label approvals down to the ones that affect you. Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:58:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Paul Jorgensen http://www.bevlaw.com/bevlog/malt-beverage/pee-like-a-racehorse-or-an-old-woman/comment-page-1#comment-562 Paul Jorgensen Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:03:33 +0000 http://www.bevlaw.com/bevlog/?p=1544#comment-562 I am surprised to say that it seems like they could get HORSE PISS past the Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) despite the curious taste (ahem) associated with this beer name. I would have thought the mark unregistrable since trademark law prohibits the registration of scandalous material. For example, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), the judicial branch of the PTO, just found the mark A-HOLE PATROL unregistrable (see In re Jibjab Media, Inc., Serial No. 78951377 (February 4, 2009)) saying that showing a mark is "vulgar" suffices to establish that it "consists of or comprises immoral ... or scandalous matter." Apparently, since the PTO also considers the mark in the context of the marketplace for the goods, you can register PISS but not A-HOLE. Curious. The question becomes: why would you want this as a trademark? At least two other parties have thought PISS trademarks for beer was a natural: PTO records reflect an application for the trademarks HORSE PISS and PANTHER PISS. While the PTO did not reject either application as covering a scandalous mark, both applicants abandoned these applications before registration. The record doesn't reflect why, but one can imagine the dead silence in the meeting where the folks who dreamt up the trademark introduced it to their advertisers. I am surprised to say that it seems like they could get HORSE PISS past the Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) despite the curious taste (ahem) associated with this beer name. I would have thought the mark unregistrable since trademark law prohibits the registration of scandalous material. For example, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), the judicial branch of the PTO, just found the mark A-HOLE PATROL unregistrable (see In re Jibjab Media, Inc., Serial No. 78951377 (February 4, 2009)) saying that showing a mark is “vulgar” suffices to establish that it “consists of or comprises immoral … or scandalous matter.” Apparently, since the PTO also considers the mark in the context of the marketplace for the goods, you can register PISS but not A-HOLE. Curious.

The question becomes: why would you want this as a trademark? At least two other parties have thought PISS trademarks for beer was a natural: PTO records reflect an application for the trademarks HORSE PISS and PANTHER PISS. While the PTO did not reject either application as covering a scandalous mark, both applicants abandoned these applications before registration. The record doesn’t reflect why, but one can imagine the dead silence in the meeting where the folks who dreamt up the trademark introduced it to their advertisers.

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