Home exercise bike company Peloton filed a petition at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), stating that Mad Dogg’s SPIN and SPINNING trademarks are generic terms in the stationary bike industry and therefore cannot be enforced. World Trademark Review contacted Finnegan partner Mark Sommers for his thoughts on the case.
Mark said, “Assuming that trademark rights in SPIN and SPINNING are upheld for the products and services at issue, those rights will nevertheless be inadequate to prevent continued industry use of the words “spin” and “spinning” in their ordinary dictionary sense (and in a non-misleading manner) under the fair use laws. Given that the repetitive rotation of a rider’s legs when pedalling a bicycle’s drive train is often referred to as “spinning,” as in to engage or “spin” the bicycle’s crank arms, that use will continue to remain freely available to the industry. Clearly, the more interesting issue will be how the evidentiary record is exercised, the facts are spun, and the arguments peddled.”
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