Hotels.com Too Generic a Trademark, Court Rules

(CN) – Hotels.com is too generic to be trademarked, the Federal Circuit ruled, rejecting a bid to register the term as a service mark.     Hotels.com LP, a company that helps people book hotels online, asked the court to overturn the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s refusal to register the mark. It argued that the proposed trademark isn’t generic, because it’s “Hotels.com,” not simply “hotels.”     The federal appeals court affirmed the board’s decision, noting that “hotels.com” is already used in several domain names, including all-hotels.com and web-hotels.com.