Opinion ID: 2770246
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Primary Significance of NEWBRIDGE

Text: The Board concluded that Newbridge, Ireland, is a place known generally to the public because it is (1) the second largest town in County Kildare and the seventeenth largest in the Republic of Ireland; (2) it is listed in the Columbia Gazetteer of the World; and (3) it appears on a number of websites including Wikipedia and tourism websites that advertise the location as “a large commercial town” with a “silverware visitor centre” in addition to museums, gardens, historical and battle sites, and a famous horse racing track. Board’s Decision at . Applicant argues that the relevant purchasing public would not be aware of the sources cited by the Board. Applicant also claims that Newbridge, Ireland, is not generally known to the relevant public as the name of a place based on the fact that the word “newbridge” has other, non-geographic meanings that would be more significant to an American consumer and that there are IN RE THE NEWBRIDGE CUTLERY COMPANY 13 “several geographic locations called ‘Newbridge.’” Applicant also claims that Newbridge, Ireland, “is not found in commonly available political maps of Ireland on the internet” and that the PTO has registered other marks with the term “Newbridge.” The PTO responds that Newbridge is a town in Ireland from which applicant takes its name and from which applicant’s products actually originate. According to the PTO, this (1) distinguishes applicant’s situation from those in which others have registered the mark and (2) indicates the mark’s geographic significance irrespective of what other meanings and connotations the mark might have in the abstract. Finally, at oral argument, the solicitor implied that in this day and age, where the average American consumer has instant internet access, a location is generally known if the existence of the location can be reasonably found on the internet. See Oral Argument at 25:05– 28:20, Newbridge, 2013-1535 (Fed. Cir. July 10, 2014), available at http://oralarguments.cafc.uscourts.gov/ default.aspx?fl=2013-1535.mp3. The conclusion that Newbridge, Ireland, a town of less than twenty thousand people, is a place known generally to the relevant American public is not supported by substantial evidence. That Newbridge is the second largest town in County Kildare and the seventeenth largest in the Republic of Ireland reveals nothing about what the relevant American purchaser might perceive the word “Newbridge” to mean and is too insignificant to show that Newbridge is a place known generally to the American purchasing public. Similarly, while the Board relied on the Columbia Gazetteer of the World listing, what is missing is any evidence to show the extent to which the relevant American consumer would be familiar with the locations listed in this gazetteer. Likewise, the fact that Newbridge, Ireland, is mentioned on some internet websites does not show that it is a generally known location. The internet (and websites 14 IN RE THE NEWBRIDGE CUTLERY COMPANY such as Wikipedia) contains enormous amounts of information: some of it is generally known, and some of it is not. Cf. In re Bavaria St. Pauli Brauerie AG, 222 U.S.P.Q. 926, 928 (T.T.A.B. 1984) (“there are dozens of other place names on the same page of the gazetteer that are likewise devoid of significance as places which any substantial quantity of American purchasers would associate with any particular products”). There is simply no evidence that the relevant American consumer would have any meaningful knowledge of all of the locations mentioned in the websites cited by the PTO. Further, it is simply untenable that any information available on the internet should be considered known to the relevant public. The fact that potential purchasers have enormous amounts of information instantly available through the internet does not evidence the extent to which consumers of certain goods or services in the United States might use this information to discern the primary significance of any particular term. Neither is a place necessarily “generally known” just because a purchaser is informed that the name of the mark is the name of the place. In Vittel, we approvingly cited a Board decision that allowed registration of the mark AYINGER BIER for beer, even though the mark was present on the label and “in picture and words, show[ed] the brewery to be located in Aying.” Vittel, 824 F.2d at 960 (citing In re Brauerei Aying Franz Inselkammer Kg, 217 U.S.P.Q. 73 (T.T.A.B. 1983)). Of course, a potential purchaser of this beer would, seeing the label, learn of the existence of Aying (and learn that this was the origin of the beer). Nevertheless, Aying, Germany, was considered obscure for the purposes of § 1052(e)(2). To be clear, we do not foreclose the PTO from using gazetteer entries or internet websites to identify whether a location is generally known. See In re Bayer Aktiengesellschaft, 488 F.3d 960, 969 (Fed. Cir. 2007). For example, we have credited gazetteer entries as part of the IN RE THE NEWBRIDGE CUTLERY COMPANY 15 evidence used to establish that Durango, Mexico, was generally known. See Loew’s, 769 F.2d at 766 n.3. But the gazetteer showing was just one piece of evidence that together with other evidence was sufficient to establish a prima facie case that Durango is known generally to the relevant public. See id. at 768. Gazetteer entries and internet websites are valuable for the information they provide. But the mere entry in a gazetteer or the fact that a location is described on the internet does not necessarily evidence that a place is known generally to the relevant public. See Vittel, 824 F.2d at 959 (“In dealing with all of these questions of the public’s response to word symbols, we are dealing with the supposed reactions of a segment of the American public, in this case the mill-run of cosmetics purchasers, not with the unusually well-travelled, the aficionados of European watering places, or with computer operators checking out the meaning of strange words on NEXIS.”). We have also considered the PTO’s evidence in toto and find that it likewise is not substantial evidence for the proposition that, to the relevant public, Newbridge, Ireland, is generally known. That Newbridge, Ireland, is not generally known is supported by the fact that certain maps and atlases do not include it. That “Newbridge” has other meanings, both geographical and non-geographical, also makes it less likely that Newbridge, Ireland, is generally known as the name of a place. On the other hand, the fact that the PTO has registered “newbridge” in contexts where the goods did not originate from Newbridge is not particularly probative since the PTO may have found no goods/place association in those contexts and, in any event, “decisions regarding other registrations do not bind either the agency or this court.” In re Boulevard Entm’t, Inc., 334 F.3d 1336, 1343 (Fed. Cir. 2003) (citing In re Nett Designs, 236 F.3d 1339, 1342 (Fed. Cir. 2001). 16 IN RE THE NEWBRIDGE CUTLERY COMPANY In sum, the facts here are similar to those of the Board’s decision in Bavaria, which we cited approvingly in Vittel, which held that Jever, West Germany, a town of 10,342, was not generally known, despite being mentioned in a geographical index. Vittel, 824 F.2d at 960 (citing Bavaria, 222 U.S.P.Q. 926). Here, as in Bavaria, the evidence as a whole suggests that Newbridge, Ireland, is not generally known. Thus, to the relevant public the mark NEWBRIDGE is not primarily geographically descriptive of the goods, which is what matters. See, e.g., Nantucket, 677 F.2d at 100 n.8 (“public association is determinative of arbitrariness”). Prong one of the test for primarily geographically descriptive marks is therefore not met. Accordingly, we need not and do not separately consider whether a goods/place association exists.