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United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions >> FRESH LINEN (Trade Mark: Inter Partes) [2001] UKIntelP o33401 (3 August 2001)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIntelP/2001/o33401.html
Cite as: [2001] UKIntelP o33401
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FRESH LINEN (Trade Mark: Inter Partes) [2001] UKIntelP o33401 (3 August 2001)
For the whole decision click here: o33401
Trade mark decision
- BL Number
- O/334/01
- Decision date
- 3 August 2001
- Hearing officer
- Mr M Knight
- Mark
- FRESH LINEN
- Classes
- 03, 05
- Applicants
- Reckitt & Colman Products Limited & Reckitt & Colman (Overseas) Limited
- Opponents
- RE. LE. VI. S.P.A.
- Opposition
- Sections 3(1)(b); 3(1)(c) & 5(2)(b)
Result
Section 3(1)(b): - Opposition partially successful.
Section 5(2)(b): - Opposition failed.
Points Of Interest
- 1. The ‘sliding scale’ of descriptiveness in the field of names relating to smells.
- 2. Comparison of the marks FRESH LINEN v LINEA FRESH.
- 3. Costs.
Summary
The Hearing Officer found that the mark was open to objection under Section 3(1), in relation to all the goods specified other than "pharmaceutical preparations and preparations for killing weeds and vermin"; he ruled that the registration should be limited to those goods. Under Section 5(2)(b) the opposition was based on the opponents’ mark LINEA FRESH, with the device of a flower. Under Section 5(2)(b), however, he found that the possibility of confusion did not amount to a "likelihood".