Well, here’s a teaser of a case we might never know more about. The mark INTRAV has been registered since 1968 for travel agency services and is now owned by International Expeditions, Inc. A company called Christine E, LLC filed a petition to cancel the mark on the basis of abandonment:
After diligent inquiry, Petitioner is unable to locate any ongoing use of the Registered Mark by Registrant International Expeditions, Inc. or any other party associated with Registrant.
What piqued my interest is that registrant International Expeditions later said this about petitioner Christine E:
Petitioner was, on information and belief, formed by a founder of one of the Registrant’s predecessors. Moreover, Petitioner has hired at least one of Registrant’s employees.
Ah, looks like we have a former owner who thinks the mark was abandoned and is planning on taking it back. And it seems like Christine E might have a pretty good idea whether mark was abandoned, seeing as it hired a former International Expeditions employee.
But we’ll never know more of the story, at least not in the cancellation. It came to light because International Expeditions had already filed a motion to voluntarily abandoned the registration, tried to withdraw the motion once it realized who the challenger was, but was denied by the Board. So the registration is killed, removing the bar to the registration of Christine E’s application for its adoption of the mark.
But there’s always district court.
Here’s John Welch at TTABlog on why the motion was denied.
Christiane E, LLC v. International Expeditions, Inc., Can. No. 92055645 (TTAB May 24, 2013).
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