Ullrich

In this trademark case, we must decide whether an organization dedicated to providing a secular alternative for those seeking recovery from alcohol and drug dependency established secondary meaning in its name sufficient to exclude others from using a nearly identical mark.

I

This appeal involves a dispute between parties who assert competing claims for the exclusive right to use the names “Secular Organizations for Sobriety” and “SOS” in conjunction with alcohol and drug dependency meetings. These meetings are designed to provide a secular alternative to programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, that emphasize religious and spiritual means to recovery. The parties have all been involved in what they describe .as a grass roots movement to develop and encourage these secular alternatives. The movement began in the 1980s, and the parties began organizing meetings on an informal and voluntary basis some time before any of them adopted a specific legal framework or asserted any formal claims of ownership. This appeal is an outgrowth of the parties’ attempts to assert legal claims to the marks used in connection with the secular sobriety movement.

*1128 In the early and mid-1980s,…