Trade mark decision

BL Number
O/074/04
Decision date
22 March 2004
Appointed Person
Mr Richard Arnold QC
Mark
AJLAN
Classes
24, 25
Applicants/Respondents
Mohammed S Al Ajlan Sons Company
Opponents/Appellants
Ajlan Bin Abdulaziz Al-Ajlan & Bros Company
Appeal to the Appointed Person against the decision of the Registrar’s Hearing Officer in opposition proceedings

Result

Appeal in respect of one mark allowed.

Appeal in respect of second mark dismissed.

Points Of Interest

  • 1.

Summary

At first instance (see BL O/278/03) the Hearing Officer had found in favour of the opponent in one case and in favour of the applicant in the other two cases. The opponents appealed to the Appointed Person in respect of the two cases they had lost under Section 5(2)(b); they did not appeal the findings under Section 5(4)(a).

In respect of one of the two applications at issue, the appellant contended that the Hearing Officer had erred in principal, by inconsistency in his findings. The Appointed Person agreed, since the "relevant average consumer" for the goods "must be taken to be able to read Roman script as well as Arabic script". The Section 5(2)(b) objection would therefore have to be considered afresh.

In the result, the Appointed Person having considered the matter concluded that the Hearing officer had been right in his findings in respect of the Roman script mark, and should have reached the same finding in respect of the Arabic script mark.

Secondly, in respect of the second of the two applications under appeal, the appellant contended that the Hearing Officer had erred in principle in that he had failed to consider the likelihood of "indirect" confusion. The Appointed Person, however, pointed out that the Hearing Officer had clearly considered this aspect and had rejected it. There was no ground for interfering with his decision.

The appeal was therefore allowed in the case of one application, and dismissed in the case of the other.

The Appointed Person reversed the Hearing Officer’s costs order, since the balance was now in favour of the opponent, and made no order as to costs in respect of the appeal, since the result had been a draw.

Full decision O/074/04 PDF document117Kb