NYC Bar Used ‘Happiest Hour’ Too Late to Ax Trademark, TTAB says

A New York City bar failed to prove it began operating early enough to establish rights to a “Happiest Hour” trademark registration over a bar in Dallas, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled Wednesday.

Evidence showed JNF LLC opened “The Happiest Hour” in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood after Harwood International Inc. applied to register “Happiest Hour” in October 2014, the TTAB said in a Wednesday precedential decision. An earlier press release and mention in the New York Times and Grubstreet.com didn’t constitute “analogous use” that could establish priority, the board said in refusing to cancel Harwood’s registration.

Analogous use ...