When determining whether a term is primarily merely a surname, the examining attorney must consider whether the term has any meaning in a foreign language. See In re Isabella Fiore, LLC, Ser. No. 76445173, 2005 TTAB LEXIS 296, at *15-16, *20-21 (2005) (holding FIORE, the Italian word meaning "flower," not primarily merely a surname despite significant evidence of surname use, as its Italian language meaning detracted from its surname significance). The doctrine of foreign equivalents should be applied to foreign wording unless it is unlikely the ordinary American purchaser would "stop and translate" the wording into its English equivalent. In re Vetements Grp. AG, 137 F.4th 1317, 1323-24 (Fed. Cir. 2025) (quoting Palm Bay Imps., Inc. v. Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Maison Fondee en 1772, 396 F.3d 1369, 1377 (Fed. Cir. 2005)). This determination is made from the point of view of ordinary American purchasers, which includes those proficient in the foreign language who would ordinarily be expected to translate words into English. In re Vetements Grp. AG, 137 F.4th at 1324 (quoting In re Spirits Int’l, N.V., 563 F.3d 1347, 1352 (Fed. Cir. 2009)); In re Isabella Fiore, LLC, 2005 TTAB LEXIS 296, at *11-12 (2005). See TMEP §1207.01(b)(vi) for the doctrine of foreign equivalents generally and for the factors for determining whether an ordinary American purchaser will stop and translate foreign wording.

To support a refusal under §2(e)(4), the record must include evidence showing that the surname significance is the primary significance. See In re Picone, Ser. No. 73274631, 1984 TTAB LEXIS 195, at *3-5 (1984) (finding evidence that "PICON" is the name of a town and a mountain in Spain and that "piccone" is an Italian word meaning "pick" or "pickax" insufficient to overcome a refusal on the ground that PICONE is primarily merely a surname).

In In re Isabella Fiore, LLC, 2005 TTAB LEXIS 296, at *11, *16-19, the Board found applicant had provided evidence that Italian was an increasingly popular language in the United States, such that the meaning of the term FIORE would be recognized by a wide variety of people; "fiore" was "listed as the only translation of the common English word 'flower;'" Italian was a common, modern language, not an obscure language; and the non-surname meaning in Italian was not obscure. The Board found that "fiore" was a "term that potential [American purchasers]" would stop and translate," and that there was no question of whether the term would be "recognized in its current form as the Italian word for ‘flower.’" Id. at *18-19. Thus, the Board applied the doctrine and reversed the refusal, finding that FIORE had a common meaning that detracted from the surname significance and did not have the "look and feel" of a surname. Id. at *20-21.

In contrast, in In re Weiss Watch Co., Ser. No. 86782562, 2017 TTAB LEXIS 183, at *17-18 (2017), the Board determined that the doctrine of foreign equivalents did not apply and affirmed the surname refusal based on significant evidence from research databases and third-party websites. Applicant argued that WEISS meant "white" in German and supported its argument with evidence from on online translation tool. Id. at *10-11. The evidence indicated, however, that in German the word "white" was spelled as "Weiß" (with the German letter eszett), rather than WEISS. Id. at *12-13. The evidence also did not show that WEISS spelled without the eszett translated to "white" in English. Id. at *13. The fact that the applied-for mark WEISS was not spelled in the standard German dictionary form of Weiß weighed against a finding that German speakers, upon seeing WEISS, would stop and transliterate first to Weiß and then translate to "white" in English. Id. at *17-18.

The fact that a term has no meaning in a foreign language may also be relevant to a determination of whether a term is primarily merely a surname. In In re Industrie Pirelli Societa per Azioni, Ser. No. 73565336, 1988 TTAB LEXIS 43, at *8 (1988), the Board found an Italian dictionary excerpt showed PIRELLI had "no ordinary meaning in the Italian language" when holding the term was primarily merely a surname.

For information regarding how to ascertain the meaning of non-English wording in a mark, see TMEP §§809–809.03. For information regarding the doctrine of foreign equivalents in other contexts, see TMEP §§1207.01(b)(vi)(A)-(b)(vi)(B) for likelihood of confusion, §1209.03(g) for descriptiveness or genericness, §1210.05(b) for geographical deceptiveness, and §1210.10 for geographic significance.