Geographically Descriptive

Many business owners want to use as a trademark or service mark a phrase that incorporates their geographic location. For example, a house cleaning service in Charlotte might want to apply for the service mark “CHARLOTTE MAIDS”. Like immoral, deceptive, or scandalous marks, geographically descriptive marks may not be registered on the Principal Register at the Patent and Trademark Office.

Section 1052 of the Lanham Act forbids registration of not only geographically descriptive marks, but also marks that are primarily geographically deceptively misdescriptive. An example might be, using our scenario above, if our Charlotte-based house cleaning service attempted to register the service mark “NEW YORK MAIDS”. The Lanham Act does provide an exception for marks that act as an indicator of regional origin, which I’ll discuss in a future post.

Business owners should take this into account when thinking of a service mark for a new service or product.