Timberland Fails Again to Trademark Billion-Dollar Boot Design

TBL Licensing LLC failed to convince a federal appeals court to overturn a decision that US patent officials made the right call in denying trademark protection to functional design elements of the company’s iconic Timberland boots.

Timberland “had to show that the design features described in its application encourage consumers to buy the boot not because those features make the boot a solid product but because, to the public, those features make the boot a Timberland product,” according to a US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decision released Monday.

The US Patent and Trademark Office in 2021 refused ...