Cartelo Crocodile Denied Use of Trademark on Baby Walkers

文章来源: CHINA INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY NEWS
发布时间: 2017/12/13 10:18:00

  Recently, the trademark dispute on the "CARTELO and Crocodile Graphics(head to left)trademark" has finally come to a conclusion after nearly three years of legal battle.


  The dispute stems from the "CARTELO and Crocodile Graphics(head to left)" trademark, the No.13532508 trademark(hereinafter referred to as the trademark in dispute), that Cartelo Crocodile Pte Ltd.(Cartelo) applied for registration in 2013. Because of the “Crocodile” related trademarks owned by Hong Kong Crocodile Shirt Company(Crocodile Shirt) and France Lacoste Company(Lacoste), the filing of the trademark in dispute in baby walker was rejected by the Trademark Office(TMO), Trademark Review and Adjudication Board(TRAB) under State Administration for Industry and Commerce(SAIC) in their separate proceedings. Cartelo then petitioned to the court, but came back with no luck.


  On November 20, 2017, in its No.1576 Trademark Gazette, TMO preliminarily approved the trademark be used on non-metallic hooks, putting an end to the dispute.


  The trademark in dispute was filed by Cartelo on November 13, 2013, for the use on Class 20 products including baby walkers, non-metallic hooks and car pillows.


  Upon examination, the TMO made an office action of partial rejection of the trademark on January 15, 2015, claiming that, the application for the trademark in dispute registered for use on other designated commodities except the non-metallic coat hooks(hereinafter referred to as reviewed commodity), constitutes the use of similar trademarks on the same or similar products with No. 3961629 "Crocodile shirt CROCODILE SINCE 1952 and crocodile graphics(head to left)" trademark (hereinafter referred to as the cited trademark A), No.10484690 "crocodile graphics (head to right)" trademark(hereinafter referred to as cited trademark B), and international registration No.808033 "crocodile graphics(head to right)" trademark(hereinafter referred to as the cited trademark C)。 TMO confirmed the preliminary examination of applications for registration of trademark in dispute on non-metallic coat hooks products and made the public announcement, but rejected the application of trademark registration on the reviewed commodity.


  Cartelo refused to accept the decision of the TMO and filed an application for review to TRAB on January 28, 2015. On February 26, 2016, TRAB decided to reject the trademark application for registration on the reviewed commodity. Cartelo refused to accept the decision made by TRAB, and then filed an administrative lawsuit to the Beijing Intellectual Property Court  who would say no to Cartelo as well. Cartelo then sought the last resort at Beijing High People's Court.


  After hearing, Beijing High held that, if the trademark in dispute and three cited trademarks are used in the same of similar commodity, the relevant public will easily be confused and misidentify the source of the goods, making the two trademarks similar ones. Cartelo's claim that after much publicity and use of the trademark in dispute, the relevant public would not feel confused and mistakenly identify for the source of the goods with the three cited trademarks, is lack of factual basis.


  Accordingly, Beijing High made the final judgment to reject Cartelo's request and upheld the decision of the first instance.(by Wang Guohao)





  (Editor Li Xingyi)


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