Lego Juris A/S v. Once Kids LLC

On behalf of client LEGO Juris A/S — owner of the world-famous LEGO trademark — the firm successfully opposed in the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office an application to register the mark ECO-BRICKS in connection with “toy building blocks” on grounds of descriptiveness. Relying heavily on the copious evidence submitted by the firm, the Board found that the evidentiary record “establishes ECO-BRICKS as highly descriptive of ‘toy construction blocks.’” Based on this finding, the Board also rejected Applicant’s argument that the applied-for mark had acquired secondary meaning despite being in use for seven years, determining that “substantially more evidence” would be necessary to show that such a highly descriptive mark had “acquired source-identifying distinctiveness by potential consumers of Applicant’s goods.” As a result, the Board sustained the opposition.