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United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions >> MAYBELLE (Trade Mark: Opposition) [2006] UKIntelP o16806 (20 June 2006)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIntelP/2006/o16806.html
Cite as: [2006] UKIntelP o16806
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MAYBELLE (Trade Mark: Opposition) [2006] UKIntelP o16806 (20 June 2006)
For the whole decision click here: o16806
Trade mark decision
- BL Number
- O/168/06
- Decision date
- 20 June 2006
- Hearing officer
- Mr G Salthouse
- Mark
- MAYBELLE
- Classes
- 29
- Applicant
- Mayfair Foods Ltd
- Opponent
- Lidl Stiftung & Co KG
- Opposition
- Section 5(2)(b)
Result
Section 5(2)(b): Opposition failed.
Points Of Interest
- None
Summary
The opponent based its opposition on its ownership of a registration in Classes 5 and 29 for the mark MARIBEL. In particular the registration in Class 29 covered a range of identical and similar goods as those of the application in suit but its statement of use referred only to “Jams, marmalade, honey and cherries”. The evidence provided in support of the opposition showed significant user from 1994 onwards in respect of the list of goods mentioned above but the use in respect of “cherries” was not well proved and the Hearing Officer declined to include those goods in his consideration.
Under Section 5(2)(b) the Hearing Officer accepted that the opponent’s mark was distinctive but did not think the user enhanced that distinctiveness. However, he considered the respective goods similar and went on to compare the respective marks MAYBELLE and MARIBEL. While the two marks shared the same two letters MA and both contained the letters BEL the Hearing Officer thought the marks both visually and phonetically different and he did not think they would be confused by the public. Opposition failed.