The People’s Paveway

The Patent and Trademark Office refused Raytheon’s application to register “Paveway” as a trademark for the company’s family of laser guided bombs. Instead, PTO upheld Lockheed Martin’s complaint, filed in 2005, that “paveway” is a generic term for a type of laser guided bomb. “Based on Raytheon’s original work inventing the laser guided munition and more than three decades of continuous use of the Paveway trademark, we believe Paveway is and should be recognized as a trademark of Raytheon Company,” Mike Nachshen, Raytheon spokesman, told the Daily Report Oct. 21. “We are currently evaluating our legal and business options.” Lockheed officials greeted the ruling. “It fully recognizes Lockheed Martin as one of two US government-qualified sources for paveway II precision guided systems,” said Joe Serra, the company’s precision guided systems senior manager in a release. Nachshen noted that “Paveway” is recognized as a Raytheon trademark in the European Union and is registered in nations including New Zealand, Switzerland, and Turkey. Lockheed counters that, beyond the United States, “paveway” already is accepted as a generic term in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Thailand. (PTO ruling; caution large-sized file.)