Virginia § 59.1-92.3 - Registrability

§ 59.1-92.3. Registrability

A mark by which the goods or services of any applicant for registration may be distinguished from the goods or services of others shall not be registered if it consists of or comprises:

1. Any immoral, deceptive or scandalous matter;

2. Any matter which may falsely suggest a connection with persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt or disrepute;

3. The flag or coat of arms or other insignia of the United States, or of any state or municipality, or of any foreign nation, or any simulation thereof;

4. The name, signature or portrait identifying a particular living individual, except by the individual's written consent;

5. A mark which (i) when used on or in connection with the goods or services of the applicant, is merely descriptive or deceptively misdescriptive of them; (ii) when used on or in connection with the goods or services of the applicant, is primarily geographically descriptive or deceptively misdescriptive of them; or (iii) is primarily merely a surname; however, nothing in this subdivision shall prevent the registration of a mark used by the applicant which has become distinctive in this Commonwealth of the applicant's goods or services. The Commission may accept as prima facie evidence that the mark has become distinctive, as used on or in connection with the applicant's goods or services, proof of continuous use thereof as a mark by the applicant in this Commonwealth for the five years before the date of the application for registration; or

6. A mark which so resembles a mark registered in this Commonwealth or a trademark, service mark or trade name previously used in this Commonwealth by another and not abandoned, as to be likely, when used on or in connection with the goods or services of the applicant, to cause confusion or mistake, or to deceive.

1998, c. 819.