Trade mark decision

BL Number

O/070/08

Decision date

6 March 2008

Hearing officer

Mr Richard Arnold QC

Mark

WITCHCRAFT

Classes

03

Applicant/Appellant

Raza Syed

Opponents/Respondents

E.C. de Witt & Company

Opposition

Appeal to the Appointed Person against the decision of the Registrar’s Hearing Officer in opposition proceedings

Result

Appeal dismissed

Points Of Interest

• (i) Comparison of the goods; “While ‘medicated’ goods within Class 5 are likely to be ones that fall within the definition of ‘medicinal product’ in Section 130 of the Medicines Act 1968, this is not necessarily so.”
• (ii) Proof of Use Regulations
• (iii) See also BL O/225/07

Summary

At first instance (see BL O/225/07) the Hearing Officer had found the opposition successful under Sections 5(2)(b) and 5(3). The applicant appealed to the Appointed Person, contending:- (i) the Hearing Officer had wrongly assessed the opponents evidence of use; (ii) was wrong to find more similarities than differences in the goods and (iii) wrong to concluded that the conceptual similarities the marks outweighed the differences. Having reviewed the Hearing Officer’s decision the Appointed Person found that although he had indeed been wrong in one aspect of his proof of use findings this did not materially affect the validity of his overall decision. The appeal was dismissed.

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URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIntelP/2008/o07008.html