Where to find unregisterable marks

[Ovicide]

I own a two-letter domain name which is a common English language phrase. I'd like to know if the USPTO has ever denied a trademark for the phrase.

In the "waterfrontliving.com" case at:
http://www.arbforum.com/domains/decisions/102179.htm
the panel says:
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reports that "no final determination as to the registerability of the mark has been made."

Where can I find if the USPTO has found a mark to be unregisterable?

I've had no luck at www.uspto.gov

 

[Ovicide]

Originally posted by Ovicide
I own a two-letter ...

Sorry, I should have said "two-word" domain name.

 

[DomainPairs]

I seem to remember that there was some issue that Intel got involved in. Something to do with American rivers not being part of trademarks. There may be other word restrictions as well.

Maybe an American lawyer can comment.

 

[jberryhill]

If an application for registration was filed, and eventually refused by the USPTO, you will find that information in the USPTO database.

Of course, if no application was filed, you will not find that information in the USPTO database (or, rather, you will find, by its absence, that no application was filed).

Whether a term is "unregistrable" for a particular class of goods and services doesn't mean it is unregistrable for another class of goods and services. For example, "dogfood" is unregistrable for dogfood, but would make a dandy mark for, say, jewelry.

Also, if you see an initial refusal and an eventual abandonment, that doesn't necessarily mean the term was not registrable. Maybe the applicant didn't feel responding, or had changed plans to use another mark.

However, when you see a rejection of a term such as "Waterfront Living" for goods or services relating to waterfront living, then it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened.

 

[Ovicide]

Originally posted by jberryhill
Whether a term is "unregistrable" for a particular class of goods and services doesn't mean it is unregistrable for another class of goods and services. For example, "dogfood" is unregistrable for dogfood, but would make a dandy mark for, say, jewelry.

Thank you for this clear answer.

I've had the name two years. It's a substring of a trademark owned by a large local company. I'm using the name (in a lexically appropriate way, unrelated to the company's business) and they haven't approached me about it -- but I don't want a lawsuit. Almost all the traffic on the name does appear to be for their company.

A year and a half ago, I made an appointment with a big law firm (cost $450 for an hour), to try to find out whether I'm on solid ground owning the name. I tried to explain the situation to them (and brought screen captures, etc), but they didn't really understand domain name issues and didn't have a computer available which would have helped me explain.