On June 30, 2020, the Supreme Court issued its decision in USPTO v. Booking.Com (available here). The Court rejected the PTO’s suggested rule that “[t]he combination of a generic word and ‘.com’ is generic.” Because consumers do not perceive the term “Booking.com” to “signify online hotel-reservation services as a class[,]” it is eligible for federal trademark registration. Per the Court:
While we reject the rule proffered by the PTO that “generic.com” terms are generic names, we do not embrace a rule automatically classifying such terms as nongeneric. Whether any given “generic.com” term is generic, we hold, depends on whether consumers in fact perceive that term as the name of a class or, instead, as a term capable of distinguishing among members of the class.