the board game monopoly was originally rejected

The consumer thus uses the term EN PASSANT exactly as a trademark should be used to enable him to recognize and ask for a particular producer's chess equipment. But these desired characteristics are all source-particular, in that they correlate with a given producer, Chessco. g., price, style, durability, consistency of quality, goodwill engendered by a catchy commercial jingle, or simply a liking for the sound of the trademark. The consumer may have innumerable reasons for desiring EN PASSANT chess equipment: E. When a consumer has available in his vocabulary the broad classifier 'chess,' but instead asks for EN PASSANT, we can infer that the consumer wants the 'species' of chess equipment produced by Chessco. Chessco's chess game is called EN PASSANT. As a hypothetical example, suppose several manufacturers produce game equipment for playing chess. The distinction is between a broad classifying term the genus and a specific sub-classifier the species. Hunting World, Inc., supra, 537 F.2d at 9. is a species.' Surgicenters of America, Inc. to the genus of which the particular product. One way courts have analyzed genericness is to ask whether a term 'has come to be understood as referring. Courts equate 'common descriptive name,' as used in the statute, with the shorthand expression 'generic term.' See, e. Further, 'no incontestable right shall be acquired in a mark which is the common descriptive name of any article or substance, patented or otherwise.' 15 U.S.C. Thus, the Lanham Act, enacted in 1947, provides for the cancellation of a trademark if 'at any time (it) becomes the common descriptive name of an article or substance.' 15 U.S.C.

As we have stated, 'one competitor will not be permitted to impoverish the language of commerce by preventing his fellows from fairly describing their own goods.' Bada Co. At its simplest, the doctrine states that when a trademark primarily denotes a product, not the product's producer, the trademark is lost. The genericness doctrine in trademark law is designed to prevent such anti-competitive misuse of trademarks.

The board game monopoly was originally rejected