June 30, 2011, Introduced by Reps. Horn, Liss, McBroom, Walsh, Cavanagh, Glardon, Moss, Knollenberg, Kowall, Callton, Heise, MacMaster, Rendon, Cotter, MacGregor, Crawford, Tyler, Price, Olson, Outman, Goike, Bledsoe, Agema, Lyons, Meadows, Daley, Kurtz and Jacobsen and referred to the Committee on Judiciary.
A bill to amend 1969 PA 242, entitled
"An act to provide for the registration of trademarks and service
marks; to prescribe the powers and duties of certain state officers
and agencies; to prescribe remedies; and to repeal certain acts and
parts of acts,"
by amending section 2 (MCL 429.32), as amended by 1984 PA 203.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec.
2. A The administrator
shall not register a mark by which
the goods or services of an applicant for registration may be
distinguished
from the goods or services of others shall not be
registered
if the mark meets any of the following:
(a) Consists of or comprises immoral, deceptive, or scandalous
matter or matter that is illegal under state or federal law.
(b)
Consists of or comprises matter which that may disparage
or falsely suggest a connection with persons, living or dead,
institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into
contempt or disrepute.
(c)
Consists of or comprises the a
flag, coat of arms, or
other insignia, or a simulation of a flag, coat of arms, or other
insignia, of the United States, or of a state or municipality, or
of
a foreign nation. , or a simulation thereof.
(d) Consists of or comprises the name, signature, or portrait
of a living individual, except with the individual's written
consent.
(e)
Consists of a mark which, that,
when applied to the goods
or services of the applicant, is merely descriptive or deceptively
misdescriptive of the goods or services, or when applied to the
goods or services of the applicant, is primarily geographically
descriptive or deceptively misdescriptive of them, or is primarily
merely
a surname. This subsection shall does not prevent the
registration
of a mark used in this state by the applicant which
that has become distinctive of the applicant's goods or services.
The administrator may accept as evidence that the mark has become
distinctive, as applied to the applicant's goods or services, proof
of
continuous use thereof of
the mark as a mark by the applicant in
this state or elsewhere for 5 years immediately preceding the date
of the filing of the application for registration.
(f)
Consists of or comprises a mark which that so resembles a
mark registered in this state, or a mark or trade name previously
used in this state by another person and not abandoned, as to be
likely, when applied to the goods or services of the applicant, to
cause
confusion , or mistake
, or to deceive.