UKIPO dismisses Swiss IP office’s bid to stop Indian pharma TM
The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property ( SFIP) has failed to stop an Indian pharmaceutical and medicine wholesaler from registering the trademark ‘Swisslife Forever’ at the UK Intellectual Property Office ( IPO).
In a decision published on Wednesday, November 13, the IPO dismissed SFIP’s arguments that UK consumers will perceive the applied-for mark as an indicator of origin.
The dispute arose after Mumbai-based Allday Pharma applied to register the mark ‘Swisslife Forever’ in class 5 for goods including vitamins, food supplements and mineral food supplements.
In its opposition, the SFIP said the dominant element of the applied-for mark is the word ‘Swiss’, which informs the public that the goods are all swiss or have a link with Switzerland.
It said that in view of this, the applied-for mark cannot identify the goods as those from other undertaking and is devoid of distinctive character.
Additionally, the SFIP said the inclusion of the word ‘Swiss’ will indicate high-quality products, as consumers associate Switzerland with premium products.
In its decision, the IPO said that whether the presence of ‘Swiss’ in a trademark indicates that the products are from Switzerland will depend upon the context and how the word appears in the trademark.
“It cannot be the case that all marks containing the word ‘Swiss’ will be perceived as indicating products from Switzerland,” it said.
The UKIPO accepted that the UK consumer may expect some goods originating from Switzerland to be of superior quality such as watches or chocolate, but it is not obvious that this perception extends to all products from Switzerland.
SFIP argued that Switzerland enjoys a strong international reputation or producing high-quality vitamins, dietary food supplements, food supplements and mineral food supplements but the IPO said it did not find this argument to be persuasive.
“There is no evidence that the UK average consumer associates Switzerland with high-quality vitamins and food supplements,” the IPO said.
Additionally, it said the applied-for mark does not indicate that the products originate in Switzerland.
Rather, the IPO said consumers will perceive the goods sold under the applied-for mark with benefits akin to a permanent Swiss lifestyle or a level of health enjoyed by Swiss people.
“It does not impart a message that the goods sold under the mark originate in Switzerland,” it said.
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