TTAB Update: Board Internal Use of a Mark Only Constitutes Abandonment

In City National Bank v. OPGI Management GP Inc./Gestion OPGI Inc., Cancellation NO. 92050730 (April 26, 2013) [precedential], the Board found that OPGI’s use of the mark TRESURYNET on an internal basis only did not constitute use in interstate commerce and had thus been abandoned. The mark was registered in connection with “providing information on financial information, namely corporate treasury and loan information and commercial real estate property management information via a global computer network.” The mark was used via the company’s intranet website that allowed employees to access a database called “TreasuryNet.” OPGI relied on a number of decisions in which the Board had found that services provided to an employee constituted use in interstate commerce, for instance, in the case of administration of an annuity plan or in-house sales training. Here, however, the Board found that the company itself was the true beneficiary of the mark, and not the employees. As the mark had, therefore, not been used in interstate commerce for a period of three years, at least since the date of issuance of its registration of February 20, 2007, the record established a prima facie case of abandonment. The petition for cancellation was granted.

Source: http://thettablog.blogspot.com/

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