For the first time in seven years, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) sustained a dilution claim in the National Pork Board and National Pork Producers Council v. Supreme Lobster and Seafood Company case. The precedential TTAB decision issued June 11, 2010, cited the survey designed by Applied Marketing Science (AMS) Chairman Emeritus Robert Klein and executed by AMS as playing a crucial role in their finding that “The Other Red Meat” would dilute the distinctiveness of the registered mark “The Other White Meat.”
In his blog post about the case, John L. Welch (author of the TTABlog) noted that evidence provided through a “‘well-designed’ telephone survey demonstrated an association between the marks, and played a crucial role in the Board’s decision.”