Recently, Beijing No.1 Medium People's Court made the first instance judgment that the decision of rejecting "DSQUARED" trademark registration made by China's State Administration for Industry and Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) is maintained.
The dismissed trademark registration is DSQUARED, certified on Class 18 of commodities, such as leather strap, cane, harness belts, backpacks, etc.. It has been approved for using on four types of commodities, including leather strap, cane, harness belts and sausage casings. But for using on backpack and other commodities, it was dismissed by Trademark Office, on the grounds that it with prior registered trademark constitute similar trademarks.
It is reported that, according to the Trademark Office, the cited trademarks is the No. 845391 "VSQUARED" trademark, applied in August, 2010, and was approved in November, 2011 on Class 18 of commodities including backpacks, handbags, rucksacks and so on.
In respect of the trademark application dismissed, DSQUARED Company requested the TRAB for the review. The TRAB believed that the dismissed trademark was applied to use in the commodities such as backpacks, which was similar to the commodities that was approved to use in the prior registered trademark "VSQUARED". The two trademarks have the same Chinese characters (meaning SQUARED) and the only difference between the two trademarks is the letter "D" and "V" so that they constitute similar trademarks.
After hearing, the Court of First Instance believes that "DSQUARED" and "VSQUARED" constitute similar trademarks and "DSQUARED" that was applied later shouldn't be approved. Meanwhile, the court held that the proof of the use of "DSQUARED" submitted by DSQUARED Company was not sufficient to prove that the trademark had influence through the use. So the court maintained the decision of TRAB.
(Source: China IP News)
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