Trip Wardrobe

Trip Wardrobe Inc. recently lost a TTAB appeal from a refusal to register their mark TRIPWARDROBE. The TTAB decided against Trip Wardrobe, and found the mark was “merely descriptive” of the service, which is online rental of clothing.

I can see both sides of this case, and why it went to appeal.

On the one hand, consumers renting clothing aren’t necessarily doing so for a “trip” but rather for any number of reasons, from special events to simply wanting to always have the latest and greatest.

But on the other, it is settled law that the mark doesn’t have to convey an idea of each and every specific feature of the goods or services in order to be considered merely descriptive. That is, a refusal to register is indicated if the mark describes one significant attribute, function or property of the goods.

Here, TRIPWARDROBE is likely to convey information about the service - rental of clothing - and how the consumer might use that service - for a trip - so the trademark was refused.

It also doesn’t help that TRIP WARDROBE, although not very common, is not a completely foreign search term in Google, with 25-100 daily searches. (I think the spikes are attorneys doing homework.)