Trademark Caselaw | Ecuador | Court Rejects PATRON Trademark Opposition
Earlier this year, OCDI -Ecuador’s IP administrative court- finally rejected Patron Spirits International AG´s opposition against a trademark application for PATRON, filed by Medi Plus Tec Medizinisch-technische Handelsgesellschaft mbH (hereinafter, Medi) in connection with “tobacco articles (luxury articles), namely cigarettes and cigarette holders; articles for use with tobacco; matches. Tobacco”.
The Industrial Property Office had initially admitted Patron’s opposition, based on its pre-existing registration for trademark PATRÓN, in class 33 and refused the proposed mark, and also rejected Medi’s claim for reconsideration; yet upon admitting the applicant’s appeal, OCDI revoked the IPO’s initial decision and granted it.
Trademark PATRÓN as applied to its tequila bottles
Patron, then, challenged OCDI’s decision arguing that it lacked motivation and that it erred in its findings, since i) goods identified with both the registered and the proposed marks were related, and ii) it had built a group of associated marks around the term PATRÓN, and that the decision did not take into consideration that consumers could erroneously associate the source of each mark.
In reviewing its previous decision, and since the appeal for reversal remains under the jurisdiction of OCDI, it ruled against Patron’s and confirmed its decision, finding that it detailed the facts relevant to the case, the applicable law and the correlation between them, thus ruling out any lack of motivation thereof. As for the alleged connection between the goods identified with the registered and proposed marks, OCDI found that there was no specific connection between alcoholic beverages and tobacco and that a person “(…) who smokes a high end cigars will not necessarily drink alcoholic beverages (…)”. It also found that, although both types of goods may be sold and advertised in the same places and through the same channels, consumers would rarely err when identifying, selecting and purchasing them.
Click here to download a copy of OCDI’s decision and feel free to contact us should you require any additional information.
