Repetition Cannot Foreclose Competition

Richard Rivera wrote the article, Denied! Denied! TTAB Rejects "Double-Word" Family, published in the latest International Trademark Association Bulletin. Below is an excerpt:

"The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (Board) affirmed the refusal to register the mark DEEP!DEEP! DISH PIZZA for pizza in International Class 30. In re LC Trademarks, Inc., No. 85890412 (TTAB Dec. 29, 2016) (precedential). . . . While the Board recognized that a common structure could establish a family of marks, it found that repeating a descriptive word and an exclamation point was too abstract to constitute a structure . . .. It also found that granting rights in the structure would permit the applicant "to enforce almost any descriptive word in the dictionary, so long as it repeats" creating "an unacceptable risk to competition." "