Trade mark decision

BL Number
O/018/07
Decision date
12 January 2007
Hearing Officer
Mr G Salthouse
Mark
SITAR SITAR (2 seperate marks)
Classes
29, 30, 32
Applicant
Crown Oriental Foods Limited
Opponent
Hunter Foods Limited FZCO
Opposition
Section 5(2)(b)

Result

Section 5(2)(b): Opposition unsuccessful.

Points Of Interest

  • None

Summary

The opponent in these proceedings owns the mark SHIKAR in respect of a range of goods in Classes 29 & 30. The opponent was, however, required to prove use of its mark and this showed that there had been user only in respect of “poppadoms, potato crisps and potato chips”.

Under Section 5(2)(b) the Hearing Officer noted that even taking the restricted range of goods referred to above, into account identical and similar goods were at issue. The question of conflict therefore rested on a comparison of the respective marks SITAR and SHIKAR. While both words commence with the letter ’S’ and end with the letters ‘AR’ the Hearing Officer decided that the prefixes SIT and SHIK were quite different and that overall the marks were not confusingly similar, particular as SITAR is well known as meaning a stringed instrument. Opposition thus failed.

Full decision O/018/07 PDF document72Kb