TTAB Affirms Descriptiveness Refusal Of "USR ID" For Security Software And Services

[This is a guest post by Susmita Gadre, a rising 3-L at Northeastern University School of Law, and a summer associate at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C.]. The Board affirmed a Section 2(e)(1) refusal of registration of the mark USR ID for security, authentication, and identification software and services, finding that the mark immediately describes a feature or characteristic of Applicant's goods and services. In re Universal Secure Registry LLC, Serial No. 87113726 (June 22, 2018) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge George C. Pologeorgis).

Examining Attorney Katrina J. Goodwin contended that consumers would likely pronounce "USR" as "user". The evidence, which included several websites, showed that the term "user ID" is commonly used in connection with authentication services.