Discovery Channel owner’s Singapore TM opposition fails
An operator of children’s camps has beaten the operator of The Discovery Channel in a trademark dispute at the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS).
Local company A-Star-Education Discovery Camps filed a trademark application for ‘Discovery Camps’ at IPOS for its brand of camps aimed at children between the ages of 3 and 14.
The company’s programmes include virtual reality camps held during local and international school holidays.
US mass media conglomerate Discovery filed an opposition to the mark, claiming that consumers would be misled into thinking the camps were offered by one of its own ‘Discovery’ brands.
The company operates The Discovery Channel, as well as other TV stations including Animal Planet, the Food Network, and Eurosport.
The US company relied on a total of nine marks in its opposition, for brands such as ‘Discovery Education’, ‘Discovery Kids’, ‘Discovery Adventures’, as well as a mark for a ‘Discovery’ logo itself.
The IPOS examiner found that the word ‘Discovery’ had a low level of distinctiveness and expressed “reluctance to … grant a monopoly over components which other traders may legitimately wish to use as part of their own trademarks”.
According to IPOS, consumers would pay a greater level of attention when making purchasing decisions about camps for children than with other goods and services.
Discovery’s strong reputation counted against it in this case, as IPOS said the brand’s “widespread and constant exposure” on television lessened the likelihood of confusion among consumers.
The examiner also accepted that, while Discovery’s brands were well known in Singapore, they could not conclude based on the media company’s evidence that its marks were “well known to the public at large”.
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