Registration of Marks - When Marks Ineligible

1. Law
2. Georgia Code
3. Commerce and Trade
4. Selling and Other Trade Practices
5. Trademarks, Service Marks, and Trade Names
6. Registration and Use of Trademarks and Service Marks
7. Registration of Marks - When Marks Ineligible

A trademark or service mark shall be entitled to registration unless it:

1. Consists of or comprises immoral, deceptive, or scandalous matter; or
2. Consists of or comprises matter which may disparage or falsely suggest a connection with persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols or bring them into contempt or disrepute; or
3. Consists of or comprises the flag or coat of arms or other insignia of the United States or of any state, county, or municipality or of any foreign nation or any simulation thereof, except that a county, municipality, or board of education shall be entitled to have registered its own service mark for use by that county, municipality, or board of education; or
4. Consists of or comprises the name, signature, or portrait of any living individual, except with his or her written consent; or
5. Consists of a mark which:
   1. When applied to the goods or services of the applicant, is merely descriptive or deceptively misdescriptive of them; or
   2. When applied to the goods or services of the applicant, is primarily geographically descriptive or deceptively misdescriptive of them; or
   3. Is primarily merely a surname; or
6. Consists of or comprises a trademark or service mark which so resembles a trademark or service mark registered in this state or a trademark or service mark or trade name previously used in this state by another and not abandoned as to be likely, when applied to the goods or services of the applicant, to cause confusion or mistake or to deceive; or
7. Consists of or comprises a trademark or service mark which so resembles a trademark or service mark registered in the United States Patent Office by another and not abandoned as to be likely, when applied to the goods or services of the applicant, to cause confusion or mistake or to deceive;

   provided, however, that, should the applicant prove that the applicant is the owner of a concurrent registration in the United States Patent Office of a trademark or service mark covering an area including this state, the applicant may register such trademark or service mark under this part.

(Ga. L. 1893, p. 134, § 3; Civil Code 1895, § 1738; Civil Code 1910, § 1990; Code 1933, § 106-102; Ga. L. 1949, p. 949, § 1; Ga. L. 1952, p. 134, § 7; Ga. L. 1963, p. 463, § 2; Ga. L. 1988, p. 1458, § 1; Ga. L. 1993, p. 462, § 1; Ga. L. 1994, p. 97, § 10.)

Law reviews.

- For article, "A Patent and Trademark Primer," see 15 Ga. St. B. J. 58 (1978).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Cited in O'Jay Spread Co. v. Hicks, 185 Ga. 507, 195 S.E. 564 (1938); Mazdak Auto Towing & Serv., Inc. v. Midcontinental Group, Inc., 231 Ga. App. 859, 501 S.E.2d 44 (1998).

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Designs and plans may not be registered as trademarks. 1952-53 Op. Att'y Gen. p. 269.

Items neither sold nor designed to protect against inferior goods.

- Holding company, owning outright certain corporations and the controlling stocks in others, which manufactures, sells, or distributes for sale no commodity whatsoever may not register as a trademark a word used on a gummed label obviously intended for the applicant's own use and a directory of subsidiaries for the applicant and such subsidiaries, when there is no indication, claim, or evidence of any kind that either of the items are sold, offered for sale, or distributed to any one other than subsidiaries and no indication that they pay for them directly or indirectly, and there is no showing that the use of the name on either piece of material is designed to or does protect the manufacturer or the public against inferior goods of others in the marts of trade. 1958-59 Op. Att'y Gen. p. 398.

Confederate flag may not be used as trademark. 1957 Op. Att'y Gen. p. 328.

Changed trademark should be reregistered.

- When a union label registered as a trademark has been changed somewhat, the label should be reregistered, showing all changes therein. 1952-53 Op. Att'y Gen. p. 514.

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 74 Am. Jur. 2d, Trademarks and Tradenames, § 55 et seq.

C.J.S.

- 87 C.J.S., Trade-Marks, Trade-Names, and Unfair Competition, §§ 192, 219.

ALR.

- Right, in absence of self-imposed restraint, to use one's own name for business purposes to detriment of another using the same or a similar name, 47 A.L.R. 1189; 44 A.L.R.2d 1156.

Right of charitable or religious association or corporation to protection against use of same or similar name by another, 37 A.L.R.3d 277.

Reverse confusion doctrine under state trademark law, 114 A.L.R.5th 129.

Initial interest confusion doctrine under Lanham Trademark Act, 183 A.L.R. Fed. 553.

Reverse confusion doctrine under Lanham Trademark Act, 187 A.L.R. Fed. 271.

Construction and Application of Trademark Registration Prohibition on Disparaging Marks Under 15 U.S.C.A. § 1052(a), 15 A.L.R. Fed. 3d 8.

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