IP cases involving Y2K Shipping & Trading Inc

By definition, a trademark needs to display sufficient distinctiveness to identify the origin and ownership of the products and services. That means generic and descriptive words should be avoided at all costs. The landmark case in United States PTO v. Booking.com B.V, however, proves that a generic term combined with “.com” or another top-level domain can be registered as a trademark if there is sufficient evidence of consumer recognition.

Timing is everything, and this is especially true when it comes to trademark registration. Choosing to trademark your brand at the right time is much more important than you would think.

We have looked into the last 1,000 trademarks registered in main intellectual property offices, including USPTO (United States), UKIPO (United Kingdom), EUIPO (European Union), CNIPA (China), CIPO (Canada), ROSPATENT (Russia), IPA (Australia), BOIP (Benelux), IGE-IPI (Switzerland), NIPO (Norway) and KIPO (Republic of Korea), exploring the average time it takes for a trademark to be registered in the selected jurisdictions.