EUIPO sides with GoPro in trademark opposition
GoPro has been successful in its bid to stop a Chinese competitor from registering a trademark at the European Intellectual Property Office ( EUIPO).
In a decision yesterday, August 7, the EUIPO ruled that consumers would likely confuse Shenzhen NightHero Technology’s applied-for mark with one of GoPro’s earlier trademarks.
Shenzhen had applied to register the word mark ‘HeroGoGo’ in class 9 for goods such as camcorders, webcams, cinematographic cameras, flashguns for cameras and night vision goggles.
But the application had been opposed by GoPro, which said it would infringe its earlier trademark ‘HERO’ which is also registered in the same class, for the same goods.
In its comparison of the applied-for and earlier trademark, the EUIPO found that the majority of the goods covered by both marks are identical.
Additionally, it said the marks were aurally similar to an average degree. The EUIPO found that consumers were likely to perceive the applied-for mark as the conjunction of the elements ‘Hero’, ‘Go’ and ‘Go’.
“Although the average consumer normally perceives a mark as a whole … when perceiving a word sign, they will break it down into elements which, for them, suggest a specific meaning”, the EUIPO said.
It added: “Consumers generally tend to focus on the first element of a sign when being confronted with a trademark. This is justified by the fact that the public reads from left to right and from top to bottom.”
In its decision, the EUIPO said given the similarity of the goods, consumers may legitimately believe the applied-for mark is a new brand line under GoPro.
Additionally, it said, “the differences between the signs are not sufficient to counteract the similarity resulting from their coinciding initial and independent element, ‘HERO’”.
“It is a common market practice for brands to identify a new sub-brand through the use of additional verbal elements in combination with the main brand,” the EPO said in its reasoning.
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