Trademark Caselaw | Ecuador | Monster Loses Trademark Opposition

OCDI, Ecuador’s Intellectual Property administrative court, recently confirmed the trademark office’s dismissal of Monster Energy Company’s opposition against Merck KGaA’s trademark application for MERCK M INITIAL (Logo), in class 29.

In its February 28 decision, the court  rejected Monsters’s appeal which was built around both trademarks identifying related goods in the international class, and the alleged similarity between the proposed mark and Monster’s own marks, M CLAW DESIGN, M MONTER ENERGY & DESIGN and M MONSTER ENERGY, in classes 29, 30 and 32, and its claim to their well-known status.

Monster’s Registered Trademarks

The court not only topok into consideration the specific traces of Monster’s logos, but also their conceptual element of a claw.

In dismissing Monster’s appeal, the court found that Monster failed to produce evidence enough to establish the well-known status of its trademarks; and that the conflicting marks shared the letter M as a central component thereof, the graphic elements of each party’s marks have extreme differences which rule out any likelihood of confusion nor association. The court further appealed to each party’s own description of their marks, pointing out that while Monster’s trademarks show a letter M resembling a claw with sharp uneven traces, Merck’s proposed mark included a stylized version of a letter M, with rounded edges.

Merck’s logo

The court pointed out the proposed logo stylized design and edges, contrasting with the opposing party’s logos.

Finally, and regarding the goods identified with each trademark, the court found that even though they are in the same class, such circumstance was not conducive to a risk of confusion, since the conflicting marks were not confusingly similar.

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