I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3499 
To amend the Trademark Act of 1946 to allow civil actions against persons 
who use trademarks that are misleading as to the origin of goods in 
certain cases. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 31, 2009 
Mr. MAFFEI introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To amend the Trademark Act of 1946 to allow civil actions 
against persons who use trademarks that are misleading 
as to the origin of goods in certain cases. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Trademark Protection 
Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
(1) Trademarks allow quick identification of a 
seller’s product, and can become an indicator of a 
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product’s quality. Thus, a trademarked good may 
command a premium in the marketplace because of 
its reputation. 
(2) Trademarks that describe some feature or 
quality of the goods or that are based on someone’s 
name or a geographic term are considered to be 
‘‘weak’’, and thus are not protectable under trade-
mark law. However, once the trademark owner can 
demonstrate substantial sales, advertising, or other 
public awareness of a weak trademark, the trade-
mark will be considered distinctive and can be reg-
istered with the United States Patent and Trade-
mark Office (USPTO). 
(3) Syracuse China was an upstate New York 
manufacturer in the city of Syracuse. The company 
was founded in 1871 as the Onondaga Pottery Co. 
and was one of the last major china makers in the 
United States. On April 9, 2009, after more than 
130 years in business, Libbey Inc. (of Toledo, Ohio) 
halted production in Syracuse, eliminating 275 local 
jobs. Libbey plans to continue selling dinnerware 
under the name ‘‘Syracuse China’’ even after they 
stop production at the New York-based plant, but 
the company will manufacture the product in other 
countries and import them into the United States. 
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SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO TRADEMARK ACT. 
(a) FALSE
DESIGNATIONS
OF
ORIGIN.—Section 
43(a)(1) of the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to provide for the 
registration and protection of trademarks used in com-
merce, to carry out the provisions of certain international 
conventions, and for other purposes’’, approved July 5, 
1946 (commonly referred to as the ‘‘Trademark Act of 
1946’’; 15 U.S.C. 1125(a)(1)), is amended— 
(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘or’’ after 
the comma at the end; 
(2) by redesignating subparagraph (B) as sub-
paragraph (C); and 
(3) by inserting after subparagraph (A) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(B) is misleadingly misdirective as to origin, 
or’’. 
(b) DEFINITIONS.—Section 45 of such Act (15 
U.S.C. 1127) is amended by inserting after the definition 
of ‘‘Internet’’ the following: 
‘‘The term ‘misleadingly misdirective as to origin’ re-
fers to the use of a trademark, which has as an exclusive 
element the name of a State or municipality within a 
State, on or in connection with goods that are not or are 
no longer produced in whole or in part in such State or 
municipality or that do not contain a component produced 
in such State or municipality.’’. 
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SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE. 
The amendments made by this Act apply to any civil 
action brought on or after the date of the enactment of 
this Act, with respect to any cause of action arising on 
or after that date. 
Æ 
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