[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 37, Volume 1]
[Revised as of July 1, 2008]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 37CFR2.41]

[Page 248]
 
              TITLE 37--PATENTS, TRADEMARKS, AND COPYRIGHTS
 
  CHAPTER I--UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF 
                                COMMERCE
 
PART 2_RULES OF PRACTICE IN TRADEMARK CASES--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 2.41  Proof of distinctiveness under section 2(f).

    (a) When registration is sought of a mark which would be 
unregistrable by reason of section 2(e) of the Act but which is said by 
applicant to have become distinctive in commerce of the goods or 
services set forth in the application, applicant may, in support of 
registrability, submit with the application, or in response to a request 
for evidence or to a refusal to register, affidavits, or declarations in 
accordance with Sec. 2.20, depositions, or other appropriate evidence 
showing duration, extent and nature of use in commerce and advertising 
expenditures in connection therewith (identifying types of media and 
attaching typical advertisements), and affidavits, or declarations in 
accordance with Sec. 2.20, letters or statements from the trade or 
public, or both, or other appropriate evidence tending to show that the 
mark distinguishes such goods.
    (b) In appropriate cases, ownership of one or more prior 
registrations on the Principal Register or under the Act of 1905 of the 
same mark may be accepted as prima facie evidence of distinctiveness. 
Also, if the mark is said to have become distinctive of applicant's 
goods by reason of substantially exclusive and continuous use in 
commerce thereof by applicant for the five years before the date on 
which the claim of distinctiveness is made, a showing by way of 
statements which are verified or which include declarations in 
accordance with Sec. 2.20, in the application may, in appropriate 
cases, be accepted as prima facie evidence of distinctiveness. In each 
of these situations, however, further evidence may be required.

[54 FR 37590, Sept. 11, 1989]