TTAB Denies Petition for Cancellation of Giraffe Logo Registration: No Standing After Board Rejects Petitioner's Purported Testimony

The Board denied a Section 2(d) petition for cancellation of a registration for the design mark shown here, for a raft of clothing items, ruling that Petitioner Wenbo Zhou failed to submit any admissible evidence in support of his entitlement to petition to cancel the registration. Mr. Zhou submitted a document entitled "Petitioner’s Evidentiary Submission Zhou Wenbo Transcript of Deposition on Written Questions," but the Board, after a detailed analysis, refused to consider that document for "multiple reasons." Wenbo Zhou v. Hangzhou Ai Xun Trade Co., Ltd., Cancellation No. 92082150 (June 17, 2026) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Christopher C. Larkin).

Petitioner Zhou's Evidentiary Submission "purports to be some sort of trial testimony." Zhou characterized the document as both a "testimonial declaration on behalf of Petitioner" and as the "Zhou Wenbo Transcript of Deposition on Written Questions." 

However, the Board found that it was not a proper declaration because it contained "no 'oath or affirmation to testify truthfully' acknowledged by the witness, Fed. R. Evid. 603, and no substitute declaration language referencing 18 U.S.C. § 1001 or 28 U.S.C. § 1746."

As to the characterization of the document as a deposition transcript, the Board noted the "absence of evidence that Mr. Zhou took an oath before participating in the “interview,” the lack of certification of the transcript by the person who recorded the "testimony," and the failure of the document to comply with any of the arrangement, indexing, and transcript form requirements.

Moreover, it was clear to the Board that the deposition on written questions was not conducted in English. "We are thus relying on the translation of the questions and answers from Chinese to English for the accuracy of Mr. Zhou’s testimony, but we have no information whatsoever regarding the translator, the process of translation, or the original Chinese-language questions and answers."

In the final analysis, although we are not certain exactly what the Evidentiary Submission is, we are quite certain about what it is not: sworn testimony in a proper deposition upon written questions, given by a witness testifying under oath before a qualified officer authorized to administer oaths, and translated from the witness’s native language into English by a qualified translator. Pursuant to Trademark Rule 2.123(k), we will not consider the Evidentiary Submission as evidence on behalf of Petitioner.

The Board observed once again that entitlement to a statutory cause of action (statutory standing) is a threshold requirement in every inter partes proceeding. Petitioner Zhou pointed to the allegations in his petition for cancellation regarding likelihood of confusion. The Board pointed out, however, that mere allegations are not enough:

Petitioner was required to “maintain [his] entitlement to the statutory cause of action throughout the proceeding and affirmatively prove its existence at the time of trial by introducing evidence to support the allegations in [his] pleading that relate to such entitlement as an element of [his] case-in-chief.” [Emphasis by the Board].

Since Mr. Zhou submitted no admissible evidence or testimony to prove his standing, the Board denied the petition for cancellation.

We are utterly mystified as to why Petitioner did not simply submit his sworn testimony declaration in appropriate Chinese-language and English-language versions, rather than going to the time and expense of taking a deposition on written questions in Indonesia, but “we must take the record as [Petitioner] made it.”

Read comments and post your comment here.

TTABlogger comment: Can the petitioner seek review by way of civil action, wherein new evidence is allowed? How would he introduce his testimony in a civil action?

Text Copyright John L. Welch 2026.