Precedential No. 5: TTAB Finds VIRTUAL INDEPENDENT PARALEGALS Generic For ..... Guess What?

In a less than scintillating but precedential ruling, the Board affirmed two refusals to register VIRTUAL INDEPENDENT PARALEGALS for "paralegal services; providing medical record summaries, deposition summaries and document review; litigation support services" [PARALEGALS disclaimed], finding the phrase to be "indisputably generic" for, or alternatively merely descriptive of, the identified services. The Board concluded that the applied-for mark "identifies a class of paralegals who telecommute or work remotely." As to the Section 2(e)(1) refusal, the Board deemed the phrase to be "highly descriptive" and rejected as insufficient the applicant' claim of acquired distinctiveness based solely on its declaration of five years of continuous and substantially exclusive use. In re Virtual Independent Paralegals, LLC, Serial No. 86947786 (March 27, 2019) [precedential] (Opinion by Judge Marc A. Bergsman).