TDH Group loses the Trademark ‘Pet Cuisine’ Mark Appeal

December 27,2018:

In 2014, TDH Group requested the Benelux-based Intellectual Property Office to register a figurative Trademark for pet food in brown color. The mark contains the word ‘Pet Cuisine’ above an image of a dog, a cat, and a dome food cover within an oval-shaped outline.

This mark covers seeds, agricultural products, fruits, and other foodstuff for animals in class 31. However, a Spanish company Comercial de servicios Agrigán, a distributor of agricultural and veterinary products, opposed TDH Group’s registration.

The Spanish company opposed the registration of the mark based on grounds of similarity between their marks. According to the suit, two of their earlier registered marks contain the word ‘The Pet CUISINE’ and ‘alimento para mascotas felices’ which means ‘food for happy pets’ in English.

Another mark contains the words ‘Genial’ and ‘Sibarity’, in blue and yellow coloring. These marks were registered in 2013 and cover classes 31, 35 and 39. These classes include foodstuff for animals, its wholesaling and retailing, and it's warehousing and registration.

According to the suit, both of the companies were dealing in similar kind of materials. There is a higher chance of confusion among the average confusion while purchasing foodstuff for animals due to the similarity between the applied-for mark and Comercial de servicios Agrigán's marks.

Additionally, the Spanish Company claimed that the term ‘Pet Cuisine’ which has been used in the applied-for mark is descriptive, not distinctive. However TDH Group, The defendant, denied both of these claims in the proceedings.

On 14th December 2018, the European Union General Court found that there is a higher degree of similarity between the marks. They found that both of these marks are similar to each other on the visual, conceptual and phonetical level. They refused the appeal of TDH Group to register their marks and asked them to pay the costs of the proceedings.

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