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Bottom line: The Board found that “MAILLE” is not descriptive for aprons in Class 25 and is not misdescriptive of their quality.

The applicant filed a trademark application for “MAILLE” designating aprons and clothing in Class 25.  The examiner refused the application on the ground as follows:

- The applied-for mark “MAILLE” is a French word meaning knit.
- In Japan, words from European languages such as French and Italian are used in the fashion industry; French examples are: “gilet”, “neglige”, “bustier”, etc.  So, consumers in the fashion industry have some knowledge about French.
- The mark is understood to mean knit and describes the quality of goods when used for knitwear.  The mark is likely to be misdescriptive of goods when used for the goods other than knitwear.

The applicant filed an appeal and deleted clothing from the list of goods by amendment.  The Board observed the applied-for mark and found as follows:

- Maille is listed in a French-Japanese dictionary.  However, the meaning of maille is not commonly known to Japanese people in view of their general understanding of French.  Accordingly, it does not seem quite proper to say that the mark directly and specifically indicates the quality of the designated goods “aprons”.
- No proof was found that maille is commonly used as a direct and specific indication of the quality of aprons in the relevant industry.
- The mark is capable of functioning as a source identifier and is not likely to be misdescriptive.

And so the Board reversed the refusal, and the application for “MAILLE” was granted for registration.