For F***’s Sake: Why Everyone Needs Clarity Over F-word Trademark Refusal, World IP Review

Partner Colleen Ganin spoke with World IP Review about an artist’s dispute with the US Patent and Trademark Office over registration of the F-word as a trademark, and the broader challenges of protecting commonplace terms under US trademark law.

“There’s very little guidance as to how to overcome a refusal based on ‘failure to function’ in the United States,” Colleen told the publication. “Unlike most international offices, we don’t have a non-distinctiveness refusal . . . . We have a descriptiveness refusal, which can be overcome with acquired distinctiveness. But then, for more common terms or phrases that aren’t quite descriptive, we’ve been seeing an increase in failure-to-function-refusals.”

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