Shine TV, the company behind the well-known TV show “MasterChef” lost an opposition before the UK Intellectual property office.
The company is the owner of several earlier trademarks for “MasterChef” for Classes 21 and 41. Based on this Shine TV filed an opposition against a later application for ‘Mister Chef’ for Class 21.
According to the company, the later mark tries to take advantages of the reputation of its marks well-established in the UK since 1990.
Although the UKIPO acknowledged that the goods and services of the aforementioned marks are identical and similar and that there is some phonetical similarity between the signs, the Office considered that they are not confusingly similar as a whole because of the different meaning of the first words – Mister and Master. In the first case, Mister is a title of an adult male, whereas Master refers to a skilled practitioner of a particular art.
Most likely this decision will be appealed.
Source: WIPR.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PLANET 