SCOTUS: Generic Dot-Com Names Deserve Trademarks

Courthouse News reports:

The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 Tuesday that companies with “.com” in their names are eligible for federal trademark protection, even if their monikers are otherwise generic.

“The appellate court also rejected the PTO’s contention that, as a rule, combining a generic term like ‘booking’ with ‘.com’ yields a generic composite,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the majority.

The case out of the Fourth Circuit concerns hotel site Booking.com, which filed suit in Virginia after the Patent and Trademark Office refused to register trademarks that included the company’s name.

#SCOTUS rules that the addition of “.com” to a generic term can create a protectable trademark

— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 30, 2020

Breyer’s https://t.co/kqUjkCfYRN dissent is pretty simple: Adding “dot com” to a generic term should not a trademark make. pic.twitter.com/CfMfAvlKlf

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) June 30, 2020