Trade mark decision

BL Number

O/522/02

Decision date

18 December 2002

Hearing officer

Mr A James

Mark

FUTTI

Classes

25

Applicant

Rosco Clothing Limited

Opponent

Fuzzi SpA

Opposition

Section 5(2)(b)

Result

Section 5(2)(b): - Opposition failed.

Points Of Interest

• The opponents appealed to the Appointed Person. In his decision dated 18 June 2003 (BL O/193/03) the Appointed Person upheld the Hearing Officer’s decision. In his decision the Appointed Person said that he had found the Hearing Officer’s decision surprising.

Summary

The opponents opposition was based on their ownership of a registration for the mark FUZZI in Class 25 in respect of the same and similar goods as those of the applicants.

Neither party filed evidence of use of their marks so the only matter to be decided under Section 5(2)(b) was whether the respective marks were confusingly similar, it being common ground that at least some of the respective party’s goods were identical. As the respective marks FUTTI and FUZZI both commence with the letters FU and end with the letter I the Hearing Officer accepted that there was some similarity between the two marks. However, he considered the change of a double consonant within relatively short marks to make a striking impression. As the two marks were very different conceptually; FUZZI being pronounced “fuzzy” and FUTTI being pronounced ‘futtie’ or ‘futty’ he concluded that, overall, the respective marks were not confusingly similar even in relation to identical goods. Opposition thus failed.

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URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIntelP/2002/o52202.html