2008 Hu 4783 Judgment [Trademark refusal]
[Legal]
A shared element does not establish similarity where consumers are unlikely to perceive it separately or where the marks' overall impressions clearly distinguish their sources.
Earlier registered Trademark 1 | The Earlier registered Trademark 2 | Applied for trademark | |
Mark |  |  |  |
[Comparison]
NICOLE MILLER shares MILLER with one earlier mark and NICOLE with another. Korean consumers would nevertheless recognize the application as a Western personal name and naturally pronounce it as Nicole Miller as a whole.
[Decisions]
Because the application would not naturally be divided into NICOLE or MILLER alone, its appearance, pronunciation and concept distinguished it from the earlier marks. The marks were dissimilar.
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