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Result
Section 5(2)(b): Opposition successful.
Points Of Interest
Summary
The opponent is the owner of a Community Trade Mark registration in Class 9 in respect of the mark X1 covering “software for locating electronic files stored on local network drives”. The applicant’s mark covers computer software at large in addition to a range of software for specific functions.
The opponent had used its mark for a short period prior to the relevant date but such user was modest and did not impact on the Hearing Officer’s decision.
The Hearing Officer compared the respective goods and concluded that they were identical and similar to a greater or lesser degree. As regards the respective marks the Hearing Officer believed that the applicant’s mark would be seen as X1 RECALL as the word RECALL has a clear meaning and could have an illusion to software which has a retrieval function. Thus the respective marks are very similar and the Hearing Officer went on to find the opponent successful in its Section 5(2)(b) ground.