Secondary meaning must be attributed to business to afford trade mark protection under US law

Abstract

Under US trade mark law, it is well recognized that an arbitrary or suggestive term can be entitled to trade mark protection. Even when a term is deemed descriptive, to the extent that secondary meaning is developed, ie the term becomes well known to consumers as a brand name, the mark may nonetheless be entitled to trade mark protection. OBX-Stock is the story of a trade mark owner who was commercially successful in promoting a coined term to develop widespread recognition of the term as referring to a particular geographic location. The issue raised in OBX-Stock is whether the development of such fame for an otherwise arbitrary term is enough to impart on the promoter of such term trade mark rights.