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UHDA Urges PTO to Restore Filmmaker Mode Trademark Application

Extensive case law supports withdrawing Patent and Trademark Office refusal to approve Filmmaker Mode as a registered certification mark, argued the UHD Alliance's request for reconsideration. PTO examining attorney Catherine Caycedo rejected UHDA’s application. Filmmaker Mode, introduced in August 2019,…

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is the uniformly named ease-of-access TV picture setting free of the motion-smoothing and other image processing that creators disdain for rendering their content in the living room as if it were shot on high-speed video rather than film (see 2004090032). Hisense, LG, Samsung and Vizio are the TV brands backing Filmmaker Mode in the U.S. The words in the Filmmaker Mode logo are “unregistrable” because they are “merely descriptive of an ingredient, quality, characteristic, function, feature, purpose, or use of the goods applicant will certify,” said Caycedo in April. Wednesday, UHDA asked her to reconsider “under the standard that to be considered merely descriptive, a mark must immediately describe a quality, characteristic, function, feature, purpose, or use of the goods.” Caycedo didn’t respond to questions Friday. UHDA's next recourse would be to take the case to PTO's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. UHDA President Mike Fidler declined comment.