WIPR reports about a decision of the UK Patent Office regarding the following trademark applications in Class 28:
Against these marks, an opposition was been filed by Sports Direct base on a family of earlier trademarks Sports Direct for the same Class of goods.
According to the UK IPO, there is no enough similarity between the respective trademarks which to create a confusion among the consumers. There is no visual similarity and only low level of phonetic similarity exists. What’s more, these marks have a low level of inhabitant distinctiveness due to the fact that Sports and Fitness are descriptive to the sports goods in class 28 and Direct associates with the access to them.
The IPO rejected the Sports Direct claims that the later mark can cause negative consequences for the company’s own brands and reputation because no pieces of evidence in that regard were been submitted or any other which to show a high level of reputation on the market.
More information here.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PLANET 