Trade mark decision
- BL Number
- O/151/04
- Decision date
- 1 June 2004
- Hearing Officer
- Mr G Salthouse
- Mark
- REED RETAIL INFORMATION
- Classes
- 16, 35
- Registered Proprietor
- Reed Business Information Limited
- Applicants for declaration of Invalidity
- Reed Solutions Plc
- Application for Invalidation
- Section 47(1) (citing Section 3(1)(b)) Section 47(2) (citing Sections 5(2)(b) & 5(4)(a))
Result
Application for invalidation Section 3(1)(b): - Successful
Application for invalidation Section 5(2)(b) & 5(4)(a): - Failed
Points Of Interest
- 1. Evidence of use: “the Registry should be slow to adopt a “rough and ready approach to issues surrounding evidence of use”.
- 2. Surnames.
- 3. “Distinctiveness by proxy”.
Summary
This was one of two closely related actions heard on the same day. The decision in respect of the other is set out in BL O/152/04.
The Hearing Officer’s findings and decisions in this case are the same, mutatis mutandis, as those set out in greater detail in the summary of BL O/152/04, qv.
[Note, however, that an error in this decision BL O/151/02) is corrected in BL O/171/04, a supplementary decision rectifying the apparent conflict between the Hearing Officer’s findings (in paragraph 44) under Section 3(1)(b) and his conclusions set out in paragraph 59].
Full decision O/151/04 
53Kb
