Fashion brand Next’s TM opposition fails
British multinational clothing retailer Next Retail, which operates the “ Next” brand, has failed in its bid to block a rival fashion trademark at the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
YS Garments filed a trademark application for “ Next Level” in class 25, covering clothing, footwear, and headgear, in September 2017.
Next Retail opposed the mark, arguing that consumers were likely to mistake “Next Level” for an offshoot of its own brand.
Although the IPO agreed that “Next” was a well-established fashion brand and enjoyed a high level of distinctiveness through use, it did not find any likelihood of confusion between the marks among consumers.
Despite the similarity between the marks, the IPO found, the word ‘level’ was “unlikely to be overlooked, misrecalled or misremembered”.
Next Retail argued, however, that there was a likelihood of indirect confusion as consumers may think that “Next Level” was a derivative of its own brand, akin to its “Next Signature” product line.
The IPO rejected the comparison, remarking that “signature” was a well-known term used by fashion designers and was easily understood by consumers as describing a brand’s signature range.
Next Retail also argued that consumers would perceive “Next Level” as describing its own brand’s superior quality to its competitors. According to the IPO, this argument required “too great a level of mental arithmetic” in order to be credible.
The British multinational had also cited its successful opposition to the “Next Level” mark at the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). This decision, however, did not factor in the IPO’s ruling.
The IPO awarded costs of £2,000 ($2,498) to YS Garments.
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