Chanel smells success with Coco TM opposition

Coco Chanel, one of the most influential women of all time, and one who built the foundations of a very successful brand.

Chanel perfumes are certainly no strangers to IP disputes, and it seems they are continuing this in 2019.

Their latest attempt to protect their brand has been successful after a ruling of the UK Intellectual Property Office.

On the basis of their ‘Coco’ mark, they succeeded in an opposition.

The mark opposed was ‘CocoGoodsCo’ applied for by Vietnamise company Loung Quoi Coconut for goods under class 3 including perfume.

Considering the two marks, the UKIPO first highlighted that removing the spaces between the words makes very little difference to its distinctive character.

The Office agreed with Chanel’s arguments that ‘Coco’ was the distinctive and dominant element of the mark.

While the applied for mark was in a specific font, as Chanel’s mark was a word mark, they had protection no matter want font was used.

Coupling this with Chanel’s reputation, the Office concluded there is a risk that consumers will consider the two marks to be connected and therefore the applied for mark is refused, for the majority of the gooods applied for. The applicant was successful in relation to ‘essential oil for hair used as cosmetics’.

By Ellis Sweetenham