IT Firm Denied Trademark for Refusing to Drop Descriptive ‘Labs’

UST Global lost a bid to register “Infinity Labs” as a trademark for its business incubator services because the information technology services provider refused to disclaim the term “Labs,” as required by the mark examiner.

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board agreed with the examining attorney that the term is “merely descriptive” of most services identified in the application.

The precedential decision highlights that if a mark is descriptive of any of the services in a class for which registration is sought, it’s proper to refuse registration for the whole class.

UST sought to register the mark on the principal ...