July 8, 2016
Stylised enough for Aldi
Stylised enough for Aldi

In March of this year, Aldi successfully opposed the stylised ALTI application in the UK, shown below. The road to this decision was not altogether straight, since their opposition was initially unsuccessful and only when brought before Geoffrey Hobbs, acting as Appointed Person, did they succeed. The full decision may be found here.

The Hearing Officer at first instance granted that the goods and services covered by the Application were identical to that of the Opponent’s marks, namely in 6, 19 and 37. This was not questioned at any point.

 

The bulk of the Appointed Person decision focuses on the Hearing Officer’s treatment of the stylistic elements of the ALTI mark. The Hearing Officer asserted that the marks ALTI- (stylised) and ALDI are conceptually neither dissimilar nor similar, aurally similar and visually dissimilar. Based on this, she found in favour of the Applicant. Mr Hobbs, along with Aldi, asserted that this reasoning places too heavy an emphasis on the stylistic elements of the mark.

 

One may be inclined to agree with this decision; in keeping as it is with the expectation that a lower level of consideration will be applied to stylistic elements than word elements, particularly where the marks being compared are only minimally stylised.It feels, then, that the correct decision has been reached in this instance. Whilst it is perhaps not a common emotion for the majority of brand owners, one would certainly have felt for Aldi had the original decision been maintained

 

Tags
Food & Drink /  Trademarks /  Disputes

Found this article interesting today?
Send us your thoughts: