Just Eat chews up pizza TM at UKIPO
Just Eat, an online food delivery service, succeeded in its opposition against a ‘Just Pizza & Pasta’ trademark earlier this week.
On Tuesday, April 24, the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) agreed that the applied-for mark would cause confusion with Just Eat’s trademark.
Mitch Sorbie had sought to register the trademark in August 2016 for class 43, which covers restaurant services and fast-food outlets, among other services.
The mark features the word ‘Just’ in block capitals, with the words ‘Pizza & Pasta’ featured below in a smaller font. To the left of the word ‘Just’ is a drawing of a slice of pizza and to the right, a drawing of some pasta wrapped around a fork.
Soon after publication of the trademark, Just Eat filed its opposition. The delivery service cited three marks, all of which cover class 43: ‘Just’ (EU trademark number 13,069,638); the ‘Just Eat’ logo (13,277,173); and ‘Just Eat’ (14,370,555).
Ann Corbett, on behalf of the IPO, looked at the ‘Just’ mark when making a decision.
After finding the services provided by the marks to be identical, Corbett added that the average consumer would select the services through a primarily visual process, but where aural considerations would also play a part.
“Whilst the services of a fast-food takeaway may be chosen with a little less attention than those of, say, a restaurant for a special occasion or family celebration, I agree that the level of attention given to the purchase of the services at issue will be no more than average,” she said.
According to the IPO, the word ‘Just’ is the dominant and distinctive element of the applied-for mark.
Corbett went on to conclude that the marks had a medium degree of visual and aural similarity and were conceptually similar to a “fairly high degree”.
On conceptual similarity, Corbett noted: “Whatever meaning is accorded to the word Just in each of the marks is likely to be the same in any event. I consider a significant majority of consumers will see the word in both marks as meaning ‘only’ or ‘simply’ …”
Taking these factors into account, and the finding that Just Eat’s mark has a lower-than average but still inherent distinctive character, the IPO found that there would be indirect confusion between the marks, but not direct confusion.
Sorbie was ordered to pay Just Eat £1,100 ($1,529).
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