In Brief: When manufacturing stops, cancellation of a trademark is not far behind.

In Brief:  A trademark cannot be cancelled after a fraudulent declaration of incontestability.

Brooklyn Brewery (“Brewery”) has been around for more than 30 years. Brewery sells craft beers all over the country. Brooklyn Brew Shop (“Brew Shop”) was founded in 2009 and sells beer brewing kits.

In 2010, Brewery started receiving calls from customers trying to reach Brew Shop. So Brewery emailed Brew Shop about it and suggested that Brew Shop “keep an eye on it”.

Apparently, neither side was too worried about customer confusion at that time. Brewery and Brew Shop started collaborating on projects related to beer making, including co-branded beer-making kits, promotional events, books on beer making and educational beer making programs.

It was a match made in beer heaven. Until May 2015.

Translating a word incorrectly can put a trademark registration at risk. %CUT% Aachi Spices & Foods brought a proceeding before the TTAB to cancel Kalidos Raju’s trademark registration for “Aachi” for various food products. Aachi alleged that Raju’s registered trademark interfered with its prior rights in a mark using the same word. Raju defended the proceeding by claiming that Aachi Spices & Foods was guilty of “unclean hands”. “Unclean hands” is an equitable doctrine that prevents a party from relying on its registration if it made a false statement during the trademark application process. According to Raju, Aachi Spices & Foods translated the word “Aachi”, to mean ‘distinguished lady’. Raju said that the word really means ‘grandmother’. The TTAB found evidence that the word is translated in different ways including both of the proposed translations. Aachi Spices & Foods’ petition to cancel Raju’s registration was granted.