Isn't It Ironic? SCOTUS Rules BOOKING.COM Eligible For Trademark Registration

On June 30, the Supreme Court, in an 8-1 decision, issued a highly anticipated decision in United States Patent and Trademark Office et al. v. Booking.Com B.V. answering the question whether a trademark consisting of a generic term and a generic top-level domain term could be eligible for federal trademark registration. Here, the mark was BOOKING.COM with and without stylistic elements. The Court held that the mark is registrable, so long as the mark as a whole is distinctive in the minds of consumers.

The case began at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), before which Booking.com filed three BOOKING.COM trademark applications for travel-related services. The USPTO refused registration on the basis that "booking.com" was generic, which was affirmed by the USPTO's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. On appeal to the Eastern District of Virginia, Booking.com prevailed, with the district court holding that BOOKING.COM was registrable because Booking.com had met