Frito-Lay Has Snyder’s ‘Pretzel Crisps’ Mark Ruled Generic Again

Snyder’s-Lance Inc.'s “Pretzel Crisps” trademark registration should should be canceled as generic, a North Carolina federal court ruled after a trademark tribunal found the same twice.

Frito-Lay North America Inc. showed that combining the generic terms “pretzel” and “crisps” doesn’t indicate any meaning to consumers beyond their literal, generic definitions, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina said Monday.

Generic marks that simply denote a category of goods or services can’t be registered as trademarks, so the court’s ruling would cancel Snyder’s-Lance’s 2005 registration.

The ruling noted Snyder’s-Lance’s substantial sales and marketing efforts harnessing the term, ...