UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
SERIAL NO: 76/610070
APPLICANT: Wakefern Food Corp.
|
|
CORRESPONDENT ADDRESS: |
RETURN ADDRESS: Commissioner for Trademarks P.O. Box 1451 Alexandria, VA 22313-1451
|
MARK: AVENUE BEAN
|
|
CORRESPONDENT’S REFERENCE/DOCKET NO: 31182.520/20
CORRESPONDENT EMAIL ADDRESS: |
Please provide in all correspondence:
1. Filing date, serial number, mark and applicant's name. 2. Date of this Office Action. 3. Examining Attorney's name and Law Office number. 4. Your telephone number and e-mail address.
|
Serial Number 76/610070
The assigned examining attorney has reviewed the referenced application and determined the following.
The examining attorney has searched the Office records and has found no similar registered or pending mark which would bar registration under Trademark Act Section 2(d), 15 U.S.C. §1052(d). TMEP §704.02.
The applicant must disclaim the descriptive wording “BEAN[i]” apart from the mark as shown, because it is merely descriptive of a feature of the applicant’s services. Trademark Act Section 6, 15 U.S.C. §1056; TMEP §§1213 and 1213.03(a).
Trademark Act Section 6(a), 15 U.S.C. §1056(a), permits the Office to require a disclaimer of an unregistrable component of a mark. Trademark Act Section 2(e), 15 U.S.C. §1052(e), bars the registration of a mark which is merely descriptive or deceptively misdescriptive, or primarily geographically descriptive of the goods. Therefore, the examining attorney may require the disclaimer of a portion of a mark which, when used in connection with the goods or services, is merely descriptive or deceptively misdescriptive, or primarily geographically descriptive. If an applicant does not comply with a disclaimer requirement, the examining attorney may refuse registration of the entire mark. TMEP §1213.01(b).
A disclaimer does not remove the disclaimed matter form the mark. It is simply a statement that the applicant does not claim exclusive rights in the disclaimed wording or design apart from the mark as shown.
The following cases explain the disclaimer requirement more fully: In re Kraft, Inc. 218 USPQ 571 (TTAB 1983); In re EBS Data Processing, Inc., 212 USPQ 964 (TTAB 1981); In re National Presto Industries, Inc., 197 USPQ 188 (TTAB 1977); In re Pendelton Tool Industries, Inc., 157 USPQ 114 (TTAB 1968).
The computerized printing format for the Trademark Official Gazette requires a standard form for a disclaimer. TMEP §1213.08(a)(i). A properly worded disclaimer should read as follows:
No claim is made to the exclusive right to use BEAN apart from the mark as shown.
See In re Owatonna Tool Co., 231 USPQ 493 (Comm’r Pats. 1983).
If applicant has questions about its application or needs assistance in responding to this Office action, please telephone the assigned trademark examining attorney directly at the number below.
Effective January 31, 2005 and pursuant to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, Pub. L. 108-447, the following are the fees that will be charged for filing a trademark application:
(1) $325 per international class if filed electronically using the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS); or
(2) $375 per international class if filed on paper
These fees will be charged not only when a new application is filed, but also when payments are made to add classes to an existing application. If such payments are submitted with a TEAS response, the fee will be $325 per class, and if such payments are made with a paper response, the fee will be $375 per class.
The new fee requirements will apply to any fees filed on or after January 31, 2005.
NOTICE: TRADEMARK OPERATION RELOCATION
The Trademark Operation has relocated to Alexandria, Virginia. Effective October 4, 2004, all Trademark-related paper mail (except documents sent to the Assignment Services Division for recordation, certain documents filed under the Madrid Protocol, and requests for copies of trademark documents) must be sent to:
Commissioner for Trademarks
P.O. Box 1451
Alexandria, VA 22313-1451
Applicants, attorneys and other Trademark customers are strongly encouraged to correspond with the USPTO online via the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS), at http://www.gov.uspto.report/teas/index.html.
/alrademacher/
April Rademacher
Examining Attorney
Law Office 102
(571) 272-9210
(571) 273-9102 (fax)
HOW TO RESPOND TO THIS OFFICE ACTION:
STATUS OF APPLICATION: To check the status of your application, visit the Office’s Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval (TARR) system at http://tarr.uspto.gov.
VIEW APPLICATION DOCUMENTS ONLINE: Documents in the electronic file for pending applications can be viewed and downloaded online at http://portal.gov.uspto.report/external/portal/tow.
GENERAL TRADEMARK INFORMATION: For general information about trademarks, please visit the Office’s website at http://www.gov.uspto.report/main/trademarks.htm
FOR INQUIRIES OR QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS OFFICE ACTION, PLEASE CONTACT THE ASSIGNED EXAMINING ATTORNEY SPECIFIED ABOVE.
bean
bean (bên) noun
1. a. Any of various New World twining herbs of the genus Phaseolus in the pea family, having leaves with three leaflets, variously colored flowers, and edible pods and seeds. b. A seed or pod of any of these plants.
2. Any of several related plants or their seeds or pods, such as the adzuki bean, broad bean, or soybean.
3. Any of various other plants or their seeds or fruits, especially those suggestive of beans, such as the coffee bean or the vanilla bean.
4. Slang. A person's head.
5. beans. Slang. A small amount: I don't know beans about the stock market.
6. Chiefly British. A fellow; a chap.
verb, transitive
beaned, bean·ing, beans
Slang.
To hit (another) on the head with a thrown object, especially a pitched baseball.
— idiom.
full of beans
1. Energetic; frisky: The children were too full of beans to sit still.
2. Badly mistaken: Don't believe him; he's full of beans.
spill the beans
To disclose a secret.
[Middle English ben, broad bean, from Old English
bêan.][i]