Mirage Hotel

FN7. Consider, for example, the following names, each with a desert connection: Kangaroo Rat Motel, the Sands Hotel, and Hesperocallis Undulata Motel. Although linked to warm deserts, and therefore Las Vegas, these names are sufficiently attenuated from descriptiveness, such that protection should be afforded without proof of secondary meaning. They fall, at best, in "a twilight zone of terms whose geographical significance ... is dubious." McCarthy, supra, at § 14:2.

FN8. We also note that Las Vegas is not the only city by a warm desert. As well, mirages are not confined solely to warm desert locations. They commonly occur over hot pavement or at sea. See The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia 550 (1983). As a result, the word "mirage" does not necessarily pinpoint any specific geographic business situs, but has a logical connection with just about every town or city in North America. Therefore, even assuming some geographic connotation, the term "Mirage" is not likely to connote, to reasonable customers, that the motel is located in Las Vegas.

FN9. Another underlying rationale for limiting the protection of geographically descriptive names is missing in this appeal. Limited protection is provided, in part, to prevent users from monopolizing descriptive names equally applicable to a multitude of businesses or products. E. Vandenburgh, Trademark Law and Procedure § 4:30 (2nd ed. 1968). The name "Mirage," however, presents no such problem.