Court Opinion

ID: 9479464
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:19:24.127842+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:03.719063
License: Public Domain

BISSELL, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the majority’s reversal of the refusal to register DELUXE on the supplemental register. I do not agree, however, that the determination of registrability on the supplemental register is a question of fact reviewed under the clearly erroneous standard.
“All marks capable of distinguishing [an] applicant’s goods ... may be registered on the supplemental register.” 15 U.S.C. § 1091 (1982); In re Minnesota Mining & Mfg., 335 F.2d 836, 838, 51 CCPA 1546, 142 USPQ 366, 368 (1964). “The test is not whether the mark, when registration is sought, is actually recognized by the average purchaser, or is distinctive of the applicant’s goods in commerce, but whether it is capable of becoming so.” In re Simmons Co., 278 F.2d 517, 519, 47 CCPA 963, 126 USPQ 52, 53 (1960) (emphasis in original). The decision whether a mark has this requisite “capability” is a policy determination *573that should be reviewable as a matter of law. Cf. Loctite Corp. v. Ultraseal Ltd., 781 F.2d 861, 870, 228 USPQ 90, 96 (Fed.Cir.1985) (applying “two policy oriented limitations” on the patent law doctrine of equivalents “as questions of law”).
In In re Deister Concentrator Co., 289 F.2d 496, 504, 48 CCPA 952,129 USPQ 814, 322 (1961), the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals recognized that the “true basis [for holding that marks could never acquire secondary meaning] is not that they cannot or do not indicate source to the purchasing public but that there is an overriding public policy of preventing their monopolization, of preserving the public right to copy.” See also Minnesota Mining, 335 F.2d at 838, 51 CCPA 1546, 142 USPQ at 369-70 (requiring that the policy considerations outlined in Deister be examined when deciding whether to allow registration on the supplemental register). In reality, a determination refusing registration on the supplemental register means that no amount of public recognition can ever make the
mark registrable on the principal register. Cf. Deister, 289 F.2d at 505-06, 48 CCPA 952, 129 USPQ at 323 (rejecting the need to consider advertising “gimmicks” designed to acquaint the public with a mark that is incapable of acquiring secondary meaning). That determination must be freely reviewable on appeal because it involves policy considerations and not questions of witness credibility, physical evidence or documentary evidence. Cf. Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 574, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1511-1512, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985) (applying the clearly erroneous standard of review to factual findings based on credibility determinations, physical evidence and documentary evidence).