Precedential No. 12: TTAB Rejects Functionality Claim But Finds Truck Light Configuration Lacks Acquired Distinctiveness

The TTAB sustained an opposition to registration of the product design shown below left, for "Electric lighting fixtures, namely, lights for vehicles," and granted a petition for cancellation of a registration for the product design shown below right, for "Lighting products for vehicles, namely, a combined stop-turn-tail lamp," finding that the two designs lacked acquired distinctiveness under Section 2(f). The Board first rejected plaintiff's claim of functionality under Section 2(e)(5), and it ultimately declined to reach plaintiff's fraud claim. Grote Industries v. Truck-Lite Co., LLC, Opposition No. 91196923 and Cancellation No. 92053498 (March 30, 2018) [precedential] (Opinion by Judge Susan J. Hightower).