As a result of the examination of the combined designation «UNIGENERAL» filed for registration by the client of «A.Zalesov & Partners» - an international corporation engaged in distribution - Rospatent established that the said designation is confusingly similar to nine signs previously registered in the name of different holders and representing separate verbal parts of the designation filed for registration.
The patent attorneys of «A.Zalesov & Partners» did not agree with the arguments of the examination and presented a number of arguments to remove the grounds for refusal.
We conducted a comparative analysis based on the main criteria of similarity, which showed that the compared designations can be recognized as dissimilar in general according to three main criteria for determining similarity. In our argumentation, we referred to the fact that the distinctiveness of such trademarks is determined by the graphic component of the means of individualization, and also proved that the claimed designation also has significant differences compared to all opposed trademarks in the verbal component. We also pointed out that the Applicant is already the owner of designation declared in the Russian Federation in a number of foreign countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Great Britain and Ireland. Moreover, in Great Britain, our Client's trademark successfully coexists with one of the designations opposed in the Russian Federation, «GENERAL», registered in the name of another company.
The examination agreed with our argumentation and made a decision on state registration of the trademark, removing the grounds for refusal due to the persuasiveness of the counterarguments provided.
The client's interests in this case were defended by the head of the Department of Legal Protection of Means of Individualization, Patent Attorney of the Russian Federation Anastasia Kiriukhina.