Japanese Company Appeals Axing of Candy Trademark to Fed. Cir.

A candy company appealed the cancellation of its “Tonosama” trademark to the Federal Circuit in a fight between Japanese companies.

Narita Export LLC convinced the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in September that it had common law rights to an identical word mark for similar products. Adaptrend Inc. appealed the decision to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a case docketed Tuesday.

Adaptrend registered Tonosama, Japanese for “feudal lord,” at the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2019 to cover candy and gift baskets containing candy. Narita filed an application for similar products months later, and ...