In November 2018, we were contacted by a client with whom we had previously worked on other projects and instructed us to prepare a written legal opinion that answers to the question whether, as an owner of an earlier mark, he has the right to oppose the use of a similar according to the client, a later mark, which is used for identical goods from Class 5 of the Nice classification. The client provided us with information about the two trademarks. Both marks are word marks. We prepared a written legal opinion in which the two trademarks were analyzed and compared and the following factors assessed, namely:
– whether the marks are phonetically similar – the marks are not phonetically similar because the common element is at the end of the word and the consumers usually focus mainly on the beginning of the word.
– whether the marks are visually similar – there is a low visual similarity between the marks;
– whether there is a conceptual similarity between the marks – the marks do not have similar semantic content.
We consider that the marks are not similar and therefore there is no likelihood of confusion on the part of the consumers. Therefore, we have recommended that the client shall not undertake action to oppose the use of the later mark.