Trade mark decision

BL Number

O/299/00

Decision date

17 July 2000

Hearing officer

Mr S Thorley QC

Mark

GOLDLINE

Classes

19

Applicants/Appellants

Whiteline Windows Limited

Opponents/Respondents

Brugmann Frisoplast GmbH

Appeal to the Appointed Person in Opposition Proceedings

Result

Appeal successful.

Points Of Interest

• 1. Extensions of time for lodging appeals to the Appointed Person.
• 2. Evidence of Reputation : "It will be rare that in a period of six months this Tribunal will be satisfied that a sufficient reputation has been established in a (descriptive) mark based solely upon the evidence of the person using the mark with a limited number of press cuttings."

Summary

This was an appeal to the Appointed Person against the decision of the Registrar’s Hearing Officer (see BL O/120/99) in which he had found the opponents unsuccessful in their opposition under Sections 3(6) and 5(2)(b), but successful under Section 5(4)(a). The applicants appealed against this latter finding.

An extension of time for the lodging of the appeal had been granted by the Registry and although this was not a matter before him, Mr Thorley described the length of the extensions (three months) as "extraordinary" and stated that he "should not like it to be thought that extensions of time for serving appeal documents (would) be granted lightly".

Turning to the substantive matter Mr Thorley reviewed the evidence relating to the opponents’ reputation, which had been sufficient to persuade the Hearing officer to find for them under Section 5(4)(a). In his view, that evidence was inadequate to meet the onus which rested on the opponents and he reversed the Hearing Officer’s finding. The appeal succeeded accordingly.

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