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The
justices will hear an appeal by the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office of lower court decision allowing the trademark because by
adding ".com" to the generic word "booking" it became eligible
for a trademark.
The online reservation service, based in Amsterdam, began using
its name globally in 2006, and filed several trademark
applications in 2011 and 2012.
A tribunal of the Patent and Trademark Office in 2016 rejected
those applications, saying Booking.com referred generically to
the common meaning of booking lodging and transportation and
cannot be used exclusively through a federal trademark
registration.
Under U.S. law, only terms that distinguish a particular product
or service from others on the market can be trademarked.
The agency noted that federal courts have rejected trademarks
for other similar names, such as hotels.com, mattress.com and
lawyers.com.
Booking.com appealed, presenting a survey that showed that 74%
of consumers identified Booking.com as a brand name. The
Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided
with the company last February because the name as a whole is
understood by the public to refer to a business.
The company, asking the Supreme Court to let the 4th Circuit
ruling stand, called itself "one of the best-known travel and
accommodations services in the United States."
Appealing to the Supreme Court, the Patent and Trademark Office
said that the addition of ".com" to a generic word does not
render it distinctive.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)
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