Applicant's Renunciation of Underlying International Registration Results in Judgment for Opposer

WHB Licensing, owner of the mark BRAUM'S for restaurant services and various food items, opposed a Section 66(a) application (request for extension of protection) to register the mark BRAM'S, in design form, for restaurant services and various food items. Applicant Ladage Beheer BV, a Netherlands limited liability company, based its U.S. application solely on its International Registration. Applicant renounced its International Registration (effective June 18, 2018), and on July 26, 2018 the International Bureau of WIPO transmitted to the USPTO  a NOTIFICATION OF DEATH OF INTERNATIONAL REGISTRATION. The USPTO issued a Notice of Abandonment on July 28, 2018. WHB Licensing, LP v. Ladage Beheer BV, Opposition No. 91237279 (August 8, 2018) [not precedential].

Trademark Rule 7.30 states:

When the International Bureau notifies the Office of the cancellation or expiration of an international registration, in whole or in part, the Office shall cancel, in whole or in part, the corresponding pending or registered extension of protection to the United States. The date of cancellation of an extension of protection or relevant part shall be the expiration of the corresponding international registration or relevant part.

Consequently applicant's extension of protection is considered cancelled as of June 16, 2018 and the subject application stand abandoned. Rule 2.135 provides that if an applicant in an inter partes proceeding files an abandonment without the written consent of the other party, judgment shall be entered against applicant. And so the Board sustained the opposition.

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TTABlog comment: Braum's has some 300 stores in operation in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri.

Text Copyright John L. Welch 2018.