BSH Home Appliances Corporation

Trademark Trial and Appeal Board

Feb 19, 2008

No. 78694265 (T.T.A.B. Feb. 19, 2008)

Mailed:
Feb. 19, 2008

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
________

Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
________

In re BSH Home Appliances Corporation
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Serial No. 78694265
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Russell W. Warnock for BSH Home Appliances Corporation.

Ray Thomas, Trademark Examining Attorney, Law Office 102
(Karen M. Strzyz, Managing Attorney).
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Before Bucher, Grendel and Kuhlke, Administrative Trademark
Judges.

Opinion by Grendel, Administrative Trademark Judge:

BSH Home Appliances Corporation, applicant herein,
seeks registration on the Principal Register of the mark
TRIPLEFLAME (in standard character form) for goods
identified in the application as “heating, steam producing,
and cooking devices, namely, cooking, baking, frying,
grilling, toasting, thawing, and hot-keeping apparatus,
THIS OPINION IS NOT A
PRECEDENT OF THE TTAB
Ser. No. 78694265
2
namely, domestic cooking ovens, electric and gas ranges,
cooktops; and structural parts therefor,” in Class 11.1
The Trademark Examining Attorney has issued a final
refusal to register applicant’s mark on the ground that the
mark, as applied to the goods identified in the
application, is merely descriptive thereof. Trademark Act
Section 2(e)(1), 15 U.S.C. §1052(e)(1).
Applicant has appealed the final refusal. After
careful consideration of the evidence of record and the
arguments of counsel, we affirm the refusal to register.
A term is deemed to be merely descriptive of goods or
services, within the meaning of Trademark Act Section
2(e)(1), if it forthwith conveys an immediate idea of an
ingredient, quality, characteristic, feature, function,
purpose or use of the goods or services. See, e.g., In re
Gyulay, 820 F.2d 1216, 3 USPQ2d 1009 (Fed. Cir. 1987), and
In re Abcor Development Corp., 588 F.2d 811, 200 USPQ 215,
217-18 (CCPA 1978). A term need not immediately convey an
idea of each and every specific feature of the applicant’s
goods or services in order to be considered merely
descriptive; it is enough that the term describes one

1 Serial No. 78694265, filed on August 17, 2005. The application
is based on applicant’s asserted bona fide intention to use the
mark in commerce. Trademark Act Section 1(b), 15 U.S.C.
§1051(b).

Ser. No. 78694265
3
significant attribute, function or property of the goods or
services. See In re H.U.D.D.L.E., 216 USPQ 358 (TTAB
1982); In re MBAssociates, 180 USPQ 338 (TTAB 1973).
Whether a term is merely descriptive is determined not in
the abstract, but in relation to the goods or services for
which registration is sought, the context in which it is
being used on or in connection with those goods or
services, and the possible significance that the term would
have to the average purchaser of the goods or services
because of the manner of its use. That a term may have
other meanings in different contexts is not controlling.
In re Bright-Crest, Ltd., 204 USPQ 591, 593 (TTAB 1979).
Moreover, it is settled that “[t]he question is not whether
someone presented with only the mark could guess what the
goods or services are. Rather, the question is whether
someone who knows what the goods or services are will
understand the mark to convey information about them.” In
re Tower Tech Inc., 64 USPQ2d 1314, 1316-17 (TTAB 2002).
See also In re Patent & Trademark Services Inc., 49 USPQ2d
1537 (TTAB 1998); In re Home Builders Association of
Greenville, 18 USPQ2d 1313 (TTAB 1990); and In re American
Greetings Corporation, 226 USPQ 365 (TTAB 1985).
Applying these principles in the present case, we find
as follows.
Ser. No. 78694265
4
The record shows that “triple” is defined, in
pertinent part, as an adjective meaning “consisting of
three parts or members.” The American Heritage Dictionary
of the English Language (4th ed. 2000). The word “flame is
defined, in pertinent part, as a noun meaning “the zone of
burning gases and fine suspended matter associated with
rapid combustion; a hot, glowing mass of burning gas or
vapor.” Id.
In response to the Trademark Examining Attorney’s Rule
2.61(b) requirement for information as to the nature of
applicant’s goods, applicant submitted a printout of a page
from its website (www.boschappliances.com), with the
caption “TRIPLEFLAME Burner.” Alongside a photograph of an
oven burner, the following explanatory text appears
(emphasis added):

The three flame ports in this burner create an
even flame pattern across multiple sizes of pans
and multiple cooking modes. As the heat is
turned down, the flame is turned off from the
outside towards the inside of the pan
sequentially – providing the right amount of
flame in the right location always.

Based on this evidence, we find that TRIPLEFLAME
directly and immediately describes a key feature of
applicant’s goods, i.e., that the cooking devices employ a
burner which uses three flame ports. As noted above, our
Ser. No. 78694265
5
mere descriptiveness determination must be made by
considering the mark in relation to the identified goods.
Thus, even if the term “triple flame” may have another
meaning in another field unrelated to applicant’s goods,2
that meaning is irrelevant to our determination in this
case of whether TRIPLEFLAME is merely descriptive of the
goods identified in the application. Nor are we persuaded
by applicant’s suggestion that purchasers encountering
applicant’s goods might ascribe alternative meanings to
“triple flame” as applied to applicant’s goods, i.e., that
it might be viewed as referring to “food prepared according
to a particular recipe,” or to “a timed sequence in which a
first flame, a second flame, and a third flame are
present.”3 Clearly, the primary if not only significance

2 Applicant, quoting from (but not providing copies of) articles
from publications such as “Structure and Propagation of Triple
Flames” and “Combustion Theory Modelling,” asserts that “triple
flame” has a specific meaning, e.g., “a canonical edge-flame
structure that can potentially describe the flame stabilization
mechanism at the base of a lifted turbulent jet diffusion flame.
A triple flame is comprised of a curved premixed flame front
spanning rich to lean compositions propagating along the
stoichiometric mixture fraction line and a trailing diffusion
flame formed from the excess fuel and oxidizer in the premixed
branches.” The specific field of technology to which this
obviously highly technical discussion of “triple flame” pertains
is not entirely clear. What is clear, however, is that this
meaning or significance of “triple flame” is not the meaning that
purchasers, i.e., ordinary consumers, will ascribe to the term
upon encountering its use in connection with applicant’s ovens
and ranges with their three flame port burners.

3 Moreover, TRIPLEFLAME would likewise be merely descriptive of a
cooking device with a burner which employs “a timed sequence in
Ser. No. 78694265
6
ordinary purchasers are likely to ascribe to TRIPLEFLAME as
applied to applicant’s goods is as a direct description of
“the three flame ports in this burner,” identified in
applicant’s own webpage advertisement.
In summary, we conclude without any doubt that
TRIPLEFLAME is merely descriptive of applicant’s goods as
identified in the application, and that registration of the
mark on the Principal Register therefore is barred by
Trademark Act Section 2(e)(1). Applicant’s arguments to
the contrary are wholly unpersuasive.

Decision: The refusal to register is affirmed.

which a first flame, a second flame, and a third flame are
present.”