By now the commercial world has universally recognized the value of trademarks in domestic and international business. Oftentimes a trademark may be more valuable than the actual products associated with it as the products may have become quite generic. Because of their commercial value, many companies aggressively protect their trademarks against anything that is, or could be, too close or confusing similar. Forming new trademarks is also increasingly difficult as the volume of trademark registrations has grown and marketing departments insist on trademarks that are more descriptive and tend away from the generic. Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit treated observers to a glance inside a battle between beverage giants Royal Crown Company Inc. and Dr Pepper/Seven Up Inc. and The Coca Cola Co. over the word mark, “zero.” Their battle over zero was reported in Royal Crown v. Coca-Cola, No. 2016-2375, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 16670 (Fed. Cir. June 20, 2018).
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