Ecuador Trademark Caselaw | IHOP loses bid to cancel registration for INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PANCAKES RESTAURANT

OCDI, Ecuador’s Intellectual Property court, recently dismissed International House of Pancakes, LLC.’s action for the cancellation of a trademark registration for INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PANCAKES RESTAURANT, for restaurant services in class 43, owned by Hilda Maria Jacome Cordova, since 2014.

Under Andean and Ecuadorian laws, a trademark registration can be cancelled if it is identical or confusingly similar to a pre-existing well-known trademark. However, there are necessary requirements for such a cancellation to succeed, and which the plaintiff did not seem to satisfy. They include producing evidence of:

• an actual pre-existing well-known trademark in Ecuador, or any other member of the Andean Community (Bolivia, Colombia and Peru); and

• the plaintiff’s ownership over such mark.

The court ruled that the plaintiff failed to produce evidence supporting its case, pointing out that it had only produced copies of registrations for trademarks including the term IHOP, none of which seemed to belong to the plaintiff, along with annual reports and other documents found irrelevant to the case. The court further pointed out that the plaintiff’s documentary evidence also failed to meet local requirements to be deemed valid, i.e. legalization and certified translation into Spanish.

Click here to request a copy of the OCDI’s decision.