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40 Trademark Rep. 326 (1950)
Haughton Elevator Company v. Seeberger, etc.

handle is hein.journals/thetmr40 and id is 400 raw text is: HAUGHTON ELEVATOR COMPANY v. SEEBERGER, ETC. Commissioner of Patents-April 3, 1950 CANCELLATIONs-BASIS OF RELIEF-ABANDONMENT The word Escalator held to have become recognized by the general public as the name for a moving stairway, as the result of registrant's course of conduct causing the mark to lose significance as an indication of origin, and registration thereof cancelled. ABANDONMENT-EvIDENCE-GENERAL On facts of record, registrant's course of conduct causing the word Escalator to lose its significance as an indication of origin held demonstrated by meaning of the word to the general public resulting from registrant's own use of the word as a generic and descriptive term in patents, in its advertising addressed to the trade, and in standard safety code pre- pared by committee upon which registrant had responsible representatives who made no pro- test. Appeal from Examiner of Interferences. Trade-mark cancellation proceeding by Haughton Elevator Company against Charles D. Seeberger (Otis Elevator Company, assignee, substitute). Registrant appeals from cancellation of registration. Affirmed. Marshall, Marshall & Leonard, Toledo, Ohio, for Petitioner. Watson, Bristol, Johnson & Leavenworth, of New York, N. Y., for Respondent. MURPHY, A. C.: This is an appeal from the decision of the Examiner of Trade-Mark Interfer- ences sustaining the petition of the Haughton Elevator Company to cancel the trade-mark Escalator Registration No. 34,724, issued May 29, 1900, to Charles D. Seeberger, assigned to the Otis Elevator Company, and duly renewed May 29, 1930; and recommending its cancellation. Both parties took testimony, filed briefs, and were represented at the oral hear- ing. The Examiner of Trade-Mark Interferences sustained the petition for cancel- lation and recommended that the registration be cancelled on the ground that the term escalator has become a descriptive name to both the general public and to engineers and architects and that, to them, the term not only does not mean a mov- ing stairway made by the respondent but rather means any moving stairway with- out reference to the maker thereof. He further held that the respondent not only has not been successful in pre- venting the use of the term 'escalator' from becoming a common descriptive name, but, by its own use thereof as a generic term, has given assent to such use. On careful consideration of the record in this case, it appears, and it does not seem to be disputed, that the term escalator is recognized by the general public as the name for a moving stairway and not the source thereof. It further appears that respondent has used the term as a generic descriptive term instead of an indi- cation of origin, in a number of patents which have been issued to them and has also so used the name in their advertising matter which has appeared in magazines ad- dressed to the trade which would be likely prospective customers for such devices. TRADE-MIARK REPORTER 40 T. M. R.

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