Crystal Mountain was our destination this weekend, to watch the littlest Levy compete in the Cherry Tree Charge ski race.  The sun finally came out enough to provide a much-needed infusion of Vitamin D, and we all cheered on our family's Picabo:

                                            
                                
                                (c) 2008 Marc Levy

And because my mind always turns to trademarks and their why and how, I found myself wondering how the heck RIDE Snowboards ever got RIDE registered for snowboards and associated gear.  Isn't a ride what you take on a snowboard (dude)?  Well, it looks like this may be one of those cases where the PTO wasn't all that savvy when the RIDE trademark application was filed back in 1992 (wow!  The year I first took to the slopes, albeit on skis!) and the mark may have just seemed suggestive to them at the time.  It looks like Ride (now owned by K2) has been pretty restrained about challenging other marks incorporating the term "ride" in the same or related fields, which is probably how the mark became incontestable.  I am not at all sure the mark would be registrable today as I think the PTO could more easily find out its descriptive nature than it could back in 1992.  I also wonder if a newcomer to the sport today might view the word RIDE emblazoned on a snowboard as a slogan or exhortation, rather than a source of origin.  The perils of descriptive marks, as I always say.