TTAB Deems "DIRECT DIVINE LIGHT HEALING" Generic For And Merely Descriptive Of Educational Services In The Field Of Spiritual Healing

• Published date: 26 April 2022
• Subject Matter: Intellectual Property, Trademark
• Law Firm: Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C.
• Author: Mr John L. Welch

The Board granted a petition for cancellation of a registration for the mark DIRECT DIVINE LIGHT HEALING for educational services in the fields of metaphysics, spiritual healing, the aura and spiritual growth [DIRECT and HEALING disclaimed], finding it to be generic for and merely descriptive of the services. The Board ruled that the each of the constituent words is generic for respondent's services, and further that the meaning of each term is unchanged in the compound mark. Implicit in the genericness holding was a finding that the registered mark is highly descriptive of those services. Divine Light Healing Ministries, Inc. v. Spiritual Arts Institute, Cancellation No. 92074236 (April 19, 2022) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Mark Lebow).

The Board observed that "any term that the relevant public uses or understands to refer to the genus of goods, or a key aspect of a sub-group of the genus, is generic." As usual, it found the relevant genus to be "commensurate with the identification of services in the Registration." The relevant consumers are doctors and the like, as well as consumers (ordinary and professional) who seek training in the identified fields.

Dictionary and website evidence shed some direct light on the meaning of the component terms. Additional Internet evidence included references to "Divine Light," "Divine Light Healing," and "Direct Divine Light Healing" used by the relevant public to identify "said healing technique or modality." Moreover, petitioner provided several examples of Respondent's use of its mark generically.

The Board found that "healing" is "clearly a key aspect" of respondent's services and therefore "generic of them." When combined into "divine light healing," the terms retain their generic significance. The word "direct" also identifies a key aspect of the services because "it implies that the healing is provided directly by or through the healer via the healer's connection with the Divine," and when "direct" is combined with "divine light healing," the terms retain their generic significance.

Excerpts from Respondent's course materials . . . are most persuasive on this point. For example, Respondent clearly explains therein that "Direct healing is where the healing is done through the hands and the palm chakras in the hands. This is the simplest and safest way to be the channel of healing and can be used in all facets of consciousness: spiritual, physical, mental and emotional . . . ."

In sum, "consumers...