Last week the Colombian ‘Consejo de Estado’ (a Supreme Court in the Administrative field) ratified the decision taken by the Colombian Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) in regards to the registration of the trade mark ‘King de Pollo’ (Chicken King). After SIC denied the registration of the trade mark ‘King de Pollo’ to Burger King Corp, the company appealed up to the Council of State to revoke the decision (Resolution No. 08350 of May 14, 1998) and thus, to allow Burger King the registration of the said trade mark.
My favourite King.. |
The claimant argued that the mark applied for had a special font and used the word ‘pollo’ which is an expression indicative of the product (Class 29). It went further to explain that the claimed mark was composed and thus indivisible. The mark ‘King de Pollo’ was not affected by the prior existence of the trade mark ‘King Line’ for class 42 because they were different marks in reading and writing. It was noted that Burger King is a valid registered trade mark for Classes 29, 30 and 42, and that the word King was their based brand. They were looking for a new way to indicate a product by adding the word 'pollo', making it more distinctive. It also argued that SIC did not conduct a thorough examination of the sign, since they fractioned the mark omitting the design like the font -- in other words SIC test was salami slice test rather that global appreciations test.
On the other side of the coin, SIC argued that the mark applied for and the registered trade mark were likely to be confused. They do have a common element, which is the expression ‘King’ and in this word is where the distinctiveness rests [why? Just because it is the first word that we see in the mark?]. SIC continued... even though the sign was accompanied by the term ‘de Pollo’, it did not have the required distinctiveness.
Source: newspaper La República.
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