The Ministry of Science & Technology Annulled the NOIP’s Decision on “Careload” Mark

Pham & Associates today announced that it has advised Toray Kabushiki Kaisha (Toray Industries Inc.,) to appeal with the Ministry of Science & Technology (“MOST”) on the National Office of Intellectual Property (“NOIP”)’s decision no. 3268 on refusal of international registration no. 1061621.

Int’l Registration no. 1061621:     Careload

Class 5: Pharmaceutical preparations and substances for human use. 

The earlier mark:                        RELOAD

Class 5: Pharmaceutical preparations

The MOST annulled the NOIP’s decision, which found a likelihood of confusion under Article 74.2(e) of the Intellectual Property Law, namely:

i) In connection with the goods/services: Both parties' marks covered the same goods, namely, pharmaceutical products.

ii) In connection with the sign of mark applied-for

- With respect to the relevant public who can not speak English: The mark applied-for consists of the words /ka-re-loa-d/ (8 letters) and read it in that order. Whereas the word elements of the cited mark consists of 6 letters and it would be pronounced /re-loa-d/. Therefore, there was not a likelihood of confusion between the marks.

- With respect to the relevant public who can speak English: the MOST observed that the sign of “Careload” would be read /keə-loud/ and be associated with the concepts of two word elements of the mark applied-for, that were “Care” and “Load”. At whole, given “Careload” had no meaning, while “RELOAD” is unambiguous meaning. Therefore, there was not a likelihood of confusion between the marks as visual, conceptual and phonetic dissimilarities. 

- With respect to the relevant public (specialists or patients who need a doctor’s prescription) would have a particularly high degree of attention and would scrupulously examine the characteristics and the content of the medicines and the identity of its producer before deciding whether to purchase. In the present case, confusion between the marks used in respect of drugs is minimized. Therefore, the MOST concluded that the marks were not visually, conceptually and phonetically similar.

On those grounds, on January 6, 2015, the MOST annulled the NOIP’s decision no. 3268 dated December 6, 2013.

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