User:Cool Hand Luke/Sandbox

		Precedent-setting Barnstar
		I award EJSawyer this barnstar for serendipitously contributing text cited by an administrative judge in a real-world legal dispute. In the case, In re Trek 2000 International Ltd., No. 77099785 (T.T.A.B. Nov. 30, 2010), Singapore-based Trek 2000 successfully won registration of the trademark "ThumbDrive." In 2008, a trademark examiner approved registration of the ThumbDrive trademark to Trek 2000. In an unusual move, the examiner requested reinstatement of jurisdiction. After being granted jurisdiction, the examiner rejected the trademark as generic (that is, by finding that "ThumbDrive" could not be a proprietary trademark because it referred generically to USB flash drives). In an effort to overcome the rejection, Trek 2000 cited several references, including the Wikipedia article on USB flash drive. The Appeal Board blockquoted this article. Id. at 15. The quoted passage favored Trek 2000's position because it suggested that "ThumbDrive" was commonly understood to derive from a trademark. "The myriad different brand names and terminology used, in the past and currently, make UFDs more difficult for manufacturers to market and for consumers to research. Some commonly used names are actually trademarks of particular companies, such as Cruzer, TravelDrive, ThumbDrive, and Disgo." Id. Your 2008 edit inserted this key prose into the article. You added "ThumbDrive" to the list of commonly-used names that were actually trademarks. Interestingly, your edit may have false in 2008—after the trademark examiner requested reinstatement of jurisdiction, she refused registration. The 2010 TTAB decision, quoting your contribution, ironically made your contribution indisputably true. Your edit is so unusual that I award you this first-ever precedent-setting Barnstar.