To be placed on the Principal Register, designations which have been alleged to be descriptive or generic must achieve significance in the minds of the public as identifying the applicant’s goods or services – a quality called “acquired distinctiveness or “secondary meaning.” The amount and character of evidence required to establish acquired distinctiveness depends on the facts of each case and on the nature of the mark for which registration is sought. In this connection, recent decisions such as United States Patent and Trademark Office v Booking.com B.V. and In re Guaranteed Rate, Inc. continue to highlight the impact of survey evidence (or the lack thereof).
