Trade mark decision

BL Number

O/449/01

Decision date

19 September 2001

Appointed Person

Mr S Thorley QC

Mark

GT NET

Classes

38, 42

Applicant

Minister for Civil Service

Opponent

Deutsche Telekom AG

Opposition

Section 5(2)(b)

Result

Appeal dismissed. - Opposition failed.

Points Of Interest

• This was an appeal from the Hearing Officer’s decision dated 25 January 2001 (BL O/038/01).

Summary

The opponent appealed on the basis that the Hearing Officer had misdirected himself as to public awareness of the word NET as at the date of application (1996); that he had taken insufficient account of the fact that TNET was an invented word; that he had not compared the respective marks as wholes and that he had taken insufficient account of the fact that identical services were at issue. The Appointed Person dismissed all these submissions and upheld the Hearing Officer’s decision that the applicant’s marks GTNET were not confusingly similar to the opponent’s TNET.

Full decision O/449/01 25Kb