US Supreme Court rules in favor of Booking.com, allowing trademarks for generic website names

On Tuesday, the US Supreme Court issued an unusual ruling on the status of website names, deciding that “Booking.com” is eligible for a federal trademark even though it’s based on a generic term. Bloomberg reports that the 8-1 decision gives Booking.com, owned by Booking Holdings Inc., nationwide legal protection against competing trademarks.

“We have no cause to deny Booking.com the same benefits Congress accorded other marks qualifying as nongeneric,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office had previously denied Booking.com’s trademark application because it believed the name to be generic, even with the “.com” addition. However, the Supreme Court overturned that decision, reasoning that it was...

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