In Re Bayou Grande Coffee Roasting (Fed. Cir., December 9, 2025) 2024-1118

This episode presents an opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit regarding an appeal filed by Bayou Grande Coffee Roasting Co. concerning the registration of the trademark KAHWA. The court reviewed the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board's decision, which had affirmed the examiner's refusal to register KAHWA for use in cafés and coffee shops. The initial refusals were based on arguments that KAHWA was generic or merely descriptive because it meant "coffee" in Arabic or referred to a specific Kashmiri green tea, but the Federal Circuit ultimately reversed the Board's determination. The court found that the findings of genericness and mere descriptiveness based on the Kashmiri green tea meaning were not supported by substantial evidence, as there was no record that U.S. cafés or coffee shops sold this specific tea. Furthermore, the court concluded that the doctrine of foreign equivalents could not be applied because the mark had a well-established alternative English meaning, thus clearing the way for KAHWA to be registrable.

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