O2 stops ‘Indigo Blue’ TM registration at UKIPO
Telecommunications provider O2 has been successful in its bid to stop a UK-based record label from registering a trademark.
In a decision on Thursday, May 30, The UK Intellectual Property Office ( IPO) said the owner of Indigo Blue Records could not register a mark as it would likely be confused with O2’s earlier marks.
Indigo Blue Records sought to register the mark ‘Indigo Blue’ in September 2017 in class 41 for services including “arranging and conducting of concerts, music concerts, music entertainment services and music festival services”.
This was opposed by O2 in January 2018, which said ‘Indigo Blue’ infringed a number of its UK and EU trademarks for the word ‘Indigo’. O2’s marks are also registered under class 41 for services such as “arranging and conducting of concerts, entertainer services and music production”.
In its analysis, the IPO said a clear point of visual similarity between the earlier marks and applied-for mark is the presence of the word ‘Indigo’ in both. It said the only difference visually, is that the applied-for mark has the additional four-letter word ‘Blue’.
But, “the beginnings of marks have the most impact on consumers”, the IPO said, finding that the marks were visually similar to a medium degree.
Conceptually, the IPO said the marks were highly similar. It said the average consumer will “easily recognise” O2’s earlier mark as a colour, specifically either a shade of blue or purple.
It said that for those who recognise ‘Indigo’ as a shade of blue, the addition of the word ‘Blue’ in the applied-for mark “does little to alter the existing concept” presented by the earlier mark ‘Indigo’.
“In other words, ‘Indigo’, in isolation, is likely to be interpreted conceptually in precisely the same way as ‘Indigo Blue’,” the IPO said.
“In both cases, consumers are likely to be left with an impression of a dark blue colour and nothing more. In that circumstance, I find the marks to be conceptually identical,” it added.
The IPO also considered that for consumers to whom indigo is a shade of purple, the addition of ‘Blue’ could prompt “more of a conceptual distinction”.
But, it said there was a close relationship between the colours blue and purple and the variation in the colour brought to mind by both the earlier and applied-for mark is “likely to be minimal”.
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