Fifth Circuit Upholds, Limits Appliance Outlet’s Trademark Win

Retail store Appliance Liquidation Outlet LLC convinced the Fifth Circuit to affirm its trademark-infringement win over a competitor, even as the appellate court limited that win by finding a shortened version of the company’s name wasn’t protectable.

“Appliance Liquidation” isn’t a valid trademark for ALO because the company supplied “insufficient evidence” that it used that name as a source identifier, Judge Jerry E. Smith wrote in a Friday opinion for the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Its marks in its full name, however, are valid because it had acquired secondary meaning and distinctiveness, the filing said.

The ...