Adidas AG filed an opposition before the Japan Patent Office (JPO) against the mark ‘adidog’ which was applied for on October 17, 2016 and was published recently on August 30, 2019. The opposed mark ‘adidog’ was applied by an individual for pet clothing.
Adidas in its opposition contended that the mark ‘adidog’ and the opponent’s mark ‘adidas’ were confusingly similar with special emphasis on the visual resemblance and the proximity of the goods to which the mark was intended to be applied on: pet clothes.
“Adidas” is coined after the name of the opponent’s founder ‘Adi Dassler’. Thus it is an invented word with no dictionary meaning. Besides, other than opponent mark, the Opposition Board could not find any words starting with ‘adid’ in language dictionaries of English, French, German and Italian or registered trademarks with the prefix ‘adid’ in Japan. It is unquestionable that the mark ‘Adidas’ is a reputed mark in Japan at least since 1971 when the brand commenced its activities in the country. The Opposition Board thus concluded that, keeping in view the close similarity between the marks, the public may misconceive the source to be from an entity systematically or economically connected with Adidas AG and thus cancelled the mark which was found to be in violation of Article 4(1)(xv)* of the Japanese Trademark Law.