In a recent trademark opposition filed by Dior against the registered trademark “妡Yuxi Adore及圖”, Taiwan’s IP Office (“TIPO”) denied Dior’s request to cancel the contested trademark. TIPO determined that although the contested trademark contains the word “Adore”, it is sufficiently distinct from Dior’s famous “J’ADORE” (Reg. No. 00832697, see below) to prevent likelihood of confusion.
1. In general, trademark similarity could be analyzed based on visual appearance, pronunciation, and conceptual impression. In this case, the contested trademark consists of a lady’s side-profile silhouette, floral elements, the Chinese character “妡”, and the text “Yuxi Adore”. Ordinary consumers would perceive the graphic silhouette and the prominent Chinese character ”妡” as the dominant portion, which together occupy about 2/3 of the entire contested trademark. Since local consumers are more familiar with Chinese, their attention naturally focuses on the Chinese character and graphical elements rather than “Yuxi Adore”. Further, although both marks share the word “adore”, the differences in their initial letters create clear visual and phonetic distinctions. Hence, TIPO considered the similarity between the two trademarks is low.
2. As to product similarity, TIPO noted that some products categories designated by the contested trademark overlapped with those covered by Dior’s trademark, such as cosmetics, fragrances, etc. However, the contested trademark also covered other dissimilar products, such as washing powders. Thus, the designated product category does not entirely overlap.
3. TIPO affirmed that Dior’s trademark is highly distinctive and had been well-known in the fragrance sector prior to the filing of the contested trademark. Nonetheless, TIPO noted that the contested trademark also demonstrated sufficient distinctiveness, considering its unique design and lack of descriptive relationship with the Class 3 goods.
4. Despite the well-known status of Dior’s “J’ADORE”, the low similarity between the marks and the distinctiveness of both allow consumers to distinguish between them. Additionally, the nature of the products designated by the contested trademark is neither harmful to the public interest nor prejudicial to the fame of Dior’s “J’ADORE”, the registration of the contested trademark is unlikely to dilute or damage Dior’s well-known trademark.
Based on the above, Dior’s request to cancel the registration of the contested trademark based on Articles 30.1.10 and 30.1.11 of Trademark Act is denied accordingly.
