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United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions >> DONUTS COMPANY (Trade Mark: Opposition) [2002] UKIntelP o06902 (30 January 2002)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIntelP/2002/o06902.html
Cite as: [2002] UKIntelP o6902, [2002] UKIntelP o06902
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DONUTS COMPANY (Trade Mark: Opposition) [2002] UKIntelP o06902 (30 January 2002)
For the whole decision click here: o06902
Trade mark decision
- BL Number
- O/069/02
- Decision date
- 30 January 2002
- Hearing officer
- Mr David Kitchin QC
- Mark
- DONUTS & COMPANY
- Classes
- 30, 32, 42
- Applicants/Respondents
- Donuts & Company Limited
- Opponents/Appellants
- Dunkin’ Donuts Inc
- Appeal to the Appointed Person against the decision of the Registrar’s Hearing Officer in Opposition proceedings (SRIS O/233/01)
Result
Appeal dismissed.
Points Of Interest
- 1. "The mere fact that the mark of an applicant bears some similarities to the mark of an opponent cannot, without more, amount to bad faith"
Summary
The opponents contended that the application should have been refused under Sections 3(6) and 5(4)(a). The Appointed Person, however, found no fault in the Hearing Officer’s decisions on these two points and dismissed the appeal. In doing so he endorsed the Hearing Officer’s remarks concerning the tendency of opponents to lower the requirement for a likelihood of confusion under Section 5(2) or 5(4)(a) by basing their case on the alternative ground that the applicants’ mark must have been adopted in bad faith because it is similar to the opponents’ mark.