- Court: Intellectual Property Archives
- Area(s) of Law: Trademarks, Government
- Date Filed: 10-01-2013
- Case #: Nos. 2012-1356, 2012-1418
- Judge(s)/Court Below: Federal Circuit Court of Appeals
- LexisNexis Citation: 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 19998
- Westlaw Citation: 2013 WL 5433432
- Full Text Opinion
Opinion (Plager): Both the City of Houston and the District of Columbia applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) for federal registration of their respective official insignias. The PTO denied their applications. Both plaintiffs appealed the denials and their appeals were addressed together in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. Houston argued that a government entity is not an “applicant” prohibited by § 2(b) of the Lanham Act to register an insignia as a trademark. The District argued that § 2(b) must be read to not prohibit a governmental entity from registering an insignia so as to not conflict with the Paris Convention. The court determined that the statute is unambiguous and held that a government entity cannot register its own insignia as a trademark. The court AFFIRMED the Board’s final decisions.