In Re Etablissements Darty Et File

NIES, Circuit Judge.

This appeal from the decision of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB or board), reported at 220 USPQ 260 (1984), affirming the examiner’s refusal to register DARTY 1 as a service mark on the Principal Register. Refusal is based on the ground that DARTY is “primarily merely a surname” within the meaning of Section 2(e)(3) of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq.), and, thus, is not registrable on the Principal Register in the absence of evidence that the name has become distinctive of the applicants’ goods in commerce, as…