Private World EOOD, represented by the team of IP Consulting filed a trademark cancellation request against trade mark reg. № 95603 новините Областен вестник ГЛАС ЛОВЕЧ, combined. The request applies to all goods and services of classes 16, 35, 41 and 42. The applicant claims to be the holder of rights on earlier trade marks.
BULGARIAN PATENT OFFICE FINDINGS
Earlier trademark rights
The comparison between the date of application of the attacked trade mark – 15.12.2015, and the date of application of the earlier trade marks – 04.06.2015, shows that earlier rights on trade marks have arisen in favor of the applicant.
Identity or similarity of goods and services
A comparison of the goods and services in Classes 16, 35 and 41 of the conflicting trade marks shows that all the goods and services attacked are identical to the goods and part of the services of the earlier trade marks. The established identity between the goods and services is determined by the fact that they are indicated by identical terms. On the other hand, there is a similarity with regard to the class 42 process services and the goods and services of the earlier trade marks.
Identity or similarity of trade marks
The assessment of the visual, phonetic or semantic similarity between the trade marks in question must be based on their overall impression. Special attention should be paid in particular to their distinctive and dominant components.
The element that most fulfills the distinctiveness of the process sign is the word “ГЛАС”. With regard to the earlier trade marks, and in so far as they are word, they have no dominant elements in their composition.
The analysis of the trade marks shows a complete phonetic and semantic coincidence of their distinctive elements “ГЛАС/glas”, which is also dominant in the composition of the atacked trade mark. This conclusion follows from the fact that they are essentially the same word written in Cyrillic and Latin respectively.
Likelihood of confusion
Given that the compared trade marks share a distinctive element that is identical in phonetic and semantic aspect, the attacked trade mark will be considered as overlapping with the message of the earlier ones. According to the above and due to the similarity of the signs and the identity and similarity of their goods and services, the conclusion is that there is a likelihood of confusion for consumers.
Conclusion
The trademark cancellation request against trade mark reg. № 95603 новините Областен вестник ГЛАС ЛОВЕЧ, combined, may be considered well-founded in respect of all goods and services in Classes 16, 35, 41 and 42.
Based on the above and on the grounds of Art. 76, par. 8 of the LTGI, the President of the Bulgarian Patent Office decided to cancel the registration of trade mark with reg. № 95603 for all goods and services in classes 16, 35, 41 and 42.
