The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) unanimously ruled in favor of Lockheed Martin by determining that "paveway" is a generic term for a type of laser guided bomb (LGB).

The TTAB issued its major decision as a result of a trademark opposition Lockheed Martin filed in 2005.

The trademark opposition was filed in response to Raytheon's request to register the term "paveway" after Lockheed Martin became a fully qualified supplier of the paveway LGB to the U.S. Air Force, Navy and international customers.

"This decision supports Lockheed Martin's goal of delivering competitive, best value solutions to the global market," said Joe Serra, precision guided systems senior manager in Lockheed Martin's Missiles and Fire Control business.

"It fully recognizes Lockheed Martin as one of two U.S. Government-qualified sources for paveway II precision guided systems."

The TTAB found that the term has been used in a generic manner by the armament manufacturers, industry press, armament wholesalers and Government purchasers.

The term "paveway" also has been accepted as a generic term in tribunals in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Thailand, and additional cases are pending.

Lockheed Martin began production of paveway II products in 1992 with its laser guided training rounds (LGTR) and followed with paveway II LGB kits and paveway II Dual Mode Laser Guided Bomb (DMLGB) kits for domestic and international customers.

The paveway LGB kits are fully qualified for all three variants of the paveway II MK-80 series of GBU-10, -12 and -16 guidance kits (2,000, 500 and 1,000 lbs, respectively) and have been used successfully in Operation Iraqi Freedom and current overseas contingency operations.

In September 2011, Lockheed Martin received a $100.5 million contract from the U.S. Air Force for production and delivery of the increased precision paveway II Plus LGB GBU-12 guidance kits.

The award represents the majority share of an initial $134 million paveway II Plus LGB procurement, part of an overall $475 million five-year, firm-fixed-price, multiple-award contract announced by the U.S. Air Force on August 1.