Federal Circuit Reverses ‘Kahwa’ Trademark Registration Refusal

Bayou Grande Coffee Roasting Co. won its bid to reverse the US Patent and Trademark Office’s finding that it can’t register the term “kahwa” as a trademark for cafes and coffee shops.

There’s no evidence in the record showing any cafe or coffee shop in the US has ever sold kahwa—a specific type of Kashmiri green tea—so the term “cannot be generic or merely descriptive of cafés and coffee shops,” the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said Tuesday.

Relying on the doctrine of foreign equivalents, a USPTO examiner refused to grant Bayou’s trademark registration request because ...