The H. Marvin Ginn Corporation v. The International Association of Fire Chiefs, Inc.

How courts have described this case

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

• reversing decision of TTAB that “Fire Chief,” as applied to monthly magazine circulated to fire departments, was generic
• describing the test as whether the term is “understood by the relevant public primarily to refer to [the appropriate] genus of goods or services”
• while term remains generic, it can never be registered as a trademark because it is incapable of acquiring de jure distinctiveness
• to show a mark is generic, defendant must show, usually through consumer surveys, that the relevant public understands the term to signify the services provided by the plaintiff
• “The generic name of a thing is in fact the ultimate in descrip- tiveness.”
• excerpts from the Lexis/Nexis database were admissible through notice of reliance because the materials “clearly identify the excerpted articles by their dates of publication and sources, all of which are readily available in published materials”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).