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"GANGA" Merely Descriptive of Department Store Services, Says TTAB, Equivalently

Returning to our "Would you have appealed?" series of decisions, contemplate this double-header. The Board applied the doctrine of foreign equivalents in affirming Section 2(e)(1) refusals of GANGA and GANGA $5 & UNDER, finding the marks merely descriptive of retail department store services. In re M6 Ventures LLC, Serial Nos. 78911566 and 78911613 (August 20, 2008) [not precedential].(ganga)Applicant M6 Ventures (located in San Diego) admitted that "ganga" means "bargain" in Spanish, but argued that "ganga" also means "gang" in "Spanglish" and that many other Spanish phrases mean "bargain." Therefore "it is unlikely that American buyers familiar with Spanish would assume that [the mark GANGA] has a descriptive of generic meaning or significance...continue to full post

Full post as published by The TTABlog on September 08, 2008 (boomark / email).