Trademark Trial and Appeal Board dismisses opposition to register mark for horticulture product

PHILADELPHIA, April 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP is pleased to announce that it has secured a dismissal of an opposition filed against The Conard-Pyle Company's application to register a trademark for live plants. The firm's litigation team for this matter was led by attorney Keith A. Jones, one of the firm's experienced trademark litigators. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) found that the disputed marks were sufficiently dissimilar in appearance, sound, and commercial impression to avoid consumer confusion.

In 2023, Conard-Pyle, a Pennsylvania-based rose breeding company, applied to register the mark Easy Bee-zy^™ Knock Out, a new addition to its long-standing and award-winning Knock Out line of roses. Spring Meadow Nursery, Inc., a Michigan-based wholesale nursery, opposed this registration, claiming consumers could easily confuse the product with its registered Oso Easy and Oso Easy Peasy marks. The TTAB noted that, while both marks shared the word "easy," this term is conceptually weak given the commonplace nature of easy maintenance as a theme in plant marketing. The TTAB judged the conceptual weakness of this term to outweigh the identical nature of the products and their overlapping trade channels.

"I am happy that Conard-Pyle is able to proceed with registering its mark, grow its Knock Out brand, and secure important protections for its valuable intellectual property," said Jones. "Trademarks are essential tools in ensuring brand recognition in the marketplace, and determining the factors that make a mark truly distinctive is one of the most vital services the TTAB provides in our industry. I look forward to continuing to help Conard-Pyle protect and enforce its IP rights."

Jones focuses his practice on intellectual property and technology litigation, including patent, copyright, trademark, unfair competition, and trade secret cases in Federal District Courts across the country and at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He also assists clients in Inter Partes Review proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and in trademark cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

About Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP – Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP is a boutique intellectual property law firm with offices in Philadelphia, Wilmington, Delaware, and Alexandria, Virginia. The firm's IP law practitioners provide strategic litigation, licensing and counseling services relating to patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, domain names and internet issues domestically and internationally. The firm's long-standing relationships with a network of associates worldwide enable its attorneys and advisors to provide clients with global intellectual property advice and protection.

Contact: Matt Henderson

matt@furiarubel.com / 215.340.0480

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SOURCE Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP