THE PROFILE OF THE CASE

On 27th May 2021, our client, TSL Management Services Lim filed an application for registration of trademark No. 56411475 "" in Class 35 services with the China National Intellectual Property Administration. After the examination, the China National Intellectual Property Administration considered that the applied trademark and the cited trademarks in the following list constituted similar trademarks, and rejected the registration of the applied trademark. We submitted the application for review of the case rejection on time on behalf of our client. 

JUDGEMENT BY CHINA NATIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ADMINISTRATION

After the examination, the China National Intellectual Property Administration determined that the applied trademark and the cited trademark were different in terms of call, text, appearance, etc., and that the co-use of trademarks was not easy to cause consumers to confuse and misidentify the source of services, and did not constitute similar trademarks used in the same or similar services referred to in Articles 30 and 31 of the Trademark Law. At present, the trademark has passed the preliminary announcement and successfully registered.

ANALYSIS OF THE CASE

The trademark application in this case was rejected because it and the quoted trademarks both contain the letter combination "TSL". In the review of the rejection, we make the following important claims: 1. " TSL|谢瑞麟" in the trademark application is the main identification part of the trademark, and this part is the main trademark of TSL Management Service Limited. After long-term use in the Chinese market, it has formed a one-to-one corresponding relationship with TSL Management Service Limited., and the jewelry and related services provided by TSL Management Service Limited, and will not cause confusion with the cited trademarks on the whole. 2. The "TSL" in the application trademark is the most important identification part, which further increases its distinction from the cited trademarks. 3. "TSL" in the trademark application is a combination of the initial letters of "Tse Sui Luen", the Cantonese name of "Tse Sui Luen", which only refers to "Tse Sui Lin" and has a specific source, meaning and direction. The reference to the trade mark "TSL" is either from no particular source, or from a combination of English characters in the trade mark, or from a combination of Chinese pinyin initials in the trade mark. In short, there are obvious differences between the applied trademark and the cited trademark in the elements, overall appearance and visual effect, meaning direction and so on. We claim to have obtained the recognition and support of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, and the application trademark has been registered.

CLASSIC MEANING 

Compared with the wording trademark, the letter combination is an integral part of the construction of the enterprise brand system because of its advantages of short, easy to remember, easy to identify and stronger market communication. Many enterprises usually choose the initial combination of their business name or other wording as their trademarks and trademark components to apply for registration. However, there are a limited number of letters in the English alphabet and a limited number of combinations of letters that can be registered as trademarks, so there is a greater chance that a combination trademark will be rejected because it is the same or similar to someone else's previous mark. The author has encountered similar situations many times, combined with the above cases, summarize and analyze the following points:

1. When the agent deals with such rejection and review cases, the discussion of trademark similarity must be combined with the source and design characteristics of the letter combination logo, centering on the three aspects of the trademark "sound, shape and meaning", and following the principles of "overall comparison" and "important part comparison" to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the trademarks involved. The analysis of the connotation of the letter combination mark and the relationship and connection between it and other elements is the proper meaning of the trademark "overall comparison" and "key part comparison". By giving the letter combination mark unique meaning and the status attached to other elements, the difference between the applied trademark and the cited trademark in the significant recognition part, meaning direction, overall appearance and other aspects is obvious. In general, the possibility of success of such cases is more optimistic.

2. If an enterprise intends to apply for the registration of the letter combination as a trademark and finds that there are many obstacles to the letter combination in the early trademark inquiry, other significant elements can be added on the basis of the letter combination in the way of combination application to improve the success rate of trademark registration and later rejection review.