JonnyCab vs RoboTaxi

What did 1990s classic movie "Total Recall," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, get right about the future, but Elon Musk got wrong?

Obviously what the United States Patent and Trademark Service (USPTO) would accept as a registerable trademark for a self-driving taxi service.

Elon Musk's "RoboTaxi" trademark registration for his self-driving taxi vehicles was just refused by the USPTO for being too generic. This is one of the most common types of refusal, and is given whenever a company attempts to trademark a name which merely describes the product. In this case, Robo + Taxi = Robotic Taxi. Hence, generic.

Compare this with 1990's Total Recall, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. In that movie, the robotic taxi service was trademarked as "Johnnycabs." Johnnycabs is an excellent name for a robotic taxi service. It is not generic, because the word "Johnny" is not conceptually related to autonomous vehicles. This fictional Taxi Company must have had some great trademark lawyers advising them!

This also illustrates an important point for all trademark practitioners going into the future. Humanity may develop memory implanting technology and terraform mars with alien technology. But the USPTO standards on trademark registration are not going anywhere!