Happy hour is over: Patent Office cancels three BLACK RUSSIAN trademarks

After a prolonged and heated discussion, the Patent Office recently cancelled three BLACK RUSSIAN trademarks on the basis that the term had been in general use before the trademarks' priority dates to denote a special kind of product in Class 33 – more specifically, a type of cocktail. The Patent Office based its decision on a 2015 IP Court opinion, which held that the registration of trademarks that come into general use to denote goods of a certain kind is prohibited.