S. S. Kresge Company v. United Factory Outlet, Inc.

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• recognizing that change in usage could alter a word’s generic status, but finding that such a shift has not yet occurred in the case of “The Mart”
• relying on dictionary definition of the term “mart” as applied to general retail stores
• court found “the Mart” presumptively generic based on dictionary definition but considered whether a shift in public understanding of the term had rebutted the presumption
• “Generic terms are those which refer to a genus of which a particular product is a species, without distinguishing its source or origin”
• “The question, however, is not whether a term is more frequently chosen colloquially than any of its synonyms, but whether it still retains its generic meaning”
• the term “mart” is generic since it is another word for store or market and no showing was made that the term has any meaning in the minds of the consuming public other than store or market

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).