The crux of the matter was, of course, the similarity of the services. Applicant limited its "bar services" to those offered in a casino, but there was no restriction on the "restaurant and bar services" in the cited registration. The Board presumed that the latter services included bar services located in a casino. See Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, N.A. v. Wells Fargo Bank, 1 USPQ2d 1813, 1815 (Fed. Cir. 1987).
The Board acknowledged that it is unlikely that registrant would be offering its bar and restaurant services in the same casinos as those in which applicant rendered its bar services. "However, the relevant class of purchasers, i.e., casino patrons, would be the same in both cases, and we must assume that they could encounter applicant's and registrant's services in the different casinos."
Applicant argued that Registrant's "restaurant and bar services' must be considered in the context of Registrant's recitation of services in its entirety, so that the restaurant and bar services should be limited to those offered in connection with "providing banquet and social function facilities for special occasions." The Board was not persuaded.
In the cited registration’s identification of services, the "providing banquet and social function facilities for special occasions" are services separated by a semicolon from the "restaurant and bar services." Under standard examination practice, a semicolon is used to separate distinct categories of goods or services. See Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure Section 1402.01(a) (October 2012).
The Board observed that applicant essentially was asserting that "restaurant and bar services" should be read in pari materia with "providing banquet and social function facilities for special occasions." That argument was unavailing. See In re Thor Tech Inc., 90 USPQ2d 1634 (TTAB 2009) [Interpreting the term "trailers" broadly in the phrase "trailers, dump trailers, and truck bodies" to include recreational trailers, rather than restrictively to refer to industrial and commercial trailers].
Finally, the Board found that the relevant purchasers include ordinary consumers who would exercise only a normal degree of care in their purchasing decisions.
And so the Board affirmed the refusal to register.
TTABlog comment: WYHDTDP? Would you have deemed this decision precedential?
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Text Copyright John L. Welch 2013.
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