Our client Zinnia Profit Company Limited (Zinnia) owns the famous clothing brand “G2000”. Due to its fashionable and elegant design, the brand is welcomed among white collars.

In 2013, unsatisfied with the opposition decision of the trademark “G20” No. 7365171, we helped client Zinnia appealed the case to the TRAB. In the appeal, Zinnia claimed the opposed mark “G20” constituted similar to its cited marks “G2000” and “G2” on similar goods.

Since the Trademark Office held the opposed mark and the cited marks were not similar in the opposition procedure, in order to increase the chance in the appeal, we advised client to collect evidence to prove the well-known status of its cited marks, particularly the relevant evidence of exclusive shops, advertisements in newspapers, introduction and recommendation of the brands in fashion reports, protection history of the cited marks in China, etc. And we also emphasized the respondent “Taizhou Zhengbang Clothing Co., Ltd.”, as a competitor in the industry, should have been aware of the client’s trademarks before filing the opposed mark.

By the end of 2014, the TRAB made decided the opposed mark was similar to the cited marks in the composing letters and numbers, and the published goods “raincoat, etc.” of the opposed mark were similar to the designated goods “clothing, underwear, etc.” of the cited marks. Adding that the cited marks have been used and advertised before the application date of the opposed mark, the registration and use of the opposed mark would be likely to cause confusion among the consumers. We helped client successfully opposed the trademark in the appeal.