Honda stops car-repair company’s trademark at UKIPO
Honda has been successful in its bid to stop a car-repair company from registering a trademark which it said would confuse consumers into believing the companies were in partnership.
In its decision on Wednesday, August 14, the UK Intellectual Property Office ( IPO) said it had “no hesitation” in finding that the average consumer is likely to believe that goods and services offered by both Vtecdirect UK and Honda emanate from the same, or linked, undertaking.
Vtecdirect UK had applied to register the word mark ‘Vtecdirect’ in class 37 for the “the fitting and installation of Vehicle parts; the maintenance, repair and servicing of vehicles”.
Honda had contested that the applied-for mark would be confusing against its earlier trademark ‘VTEC’, registered in class 12 for goods such as car engines.
In its defence, VtecdirectUK argued that it is not in competition with Honda, and that on the contrary, its services enhance Honda’s sales because it uses genuine Honda parts in its work.
But, the IPO said this was “misconceived”.
“The purpose of a registered trademark is to guarantee trade origin to the average consumer; it is not to promote the brands of other traders,” it said.
In its ruling, the IPO found that the goods and services offered by Honda and Vtecdirect UK are “complementary”.
It said that because Vtecdirect UK’s repair and maintenance services are indispensable to the proper functioning of Honda’s cars, the average consumer is likely to believe there is a commercial link between the two companies.
The office also found the marks to be aurally and visually similar due to the first four letters of both the earlier marks and applied-for mark.
The IPO said that given the positioning of ‘Vtec’ at the beginning of the applied-for mark “and its far greater degree of distinctiveness than ‘direct’, it is the ‘Vtec’ part of the mark which carries the greatest weight in the overall impression”.
It added: “Although the ‘direct’ part of the applicant’s mark is a point of conceptual difference, it is not a distinctive one as it merely indicates that the services are provided directly to the consumer.”
Vtecdirect had contested that its applied-for mark was written in a combination of upper and lower-case letters, while Honda’s marks were registered as block capitals, but the IPO said as word-only marks, both the earlier and applied-for mark may be used in upper, lower or title case.
“This is not, therefore, a point of difference between the marks,” it said.
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