Appealed successfully, RIKEN VIETNAM accepted for registration

RIKEN Vietnam Co., Ltd.,  address: No. 2 VSlP II-A, Road No. 26, Vietnam - Singapore Industrial Park II-A, Tan Uyen Town, Binh Duong Province, represented by Pham & Associates Law Firm (the Appellant) has petitioned with the IP Vietnam to appeal against Decision No. 74940/QD-SHTT dated September 24, 2021 refusing registration of applied-for mark RIKEN VIETNAM for the reason of  (i) causing confusing similarity with cited earlier trademarks currently valid in Vietnam, namely RIKEN TECHNOS (Registration No. 104578); RIKEN ELASTOMERS (Registration No. 196100 and RIKEN (Registration No. 279216), and (ii) the applied-for mark and the cited trademarks are all registered for identical or similar products in Class  01.

In the appeal the Appellant counter-argued that the applied-for trademark RIKEN VIETNAM is a combination of two elements: RIKEN and VIETNAM, expressed in uppercase letters, in which the element RIKEN is distinctive, while VIETNAM as  indicating geographical origin, so it is non-distinctive and is not taken into account when considering; therefore, in terms of structure and pronunciation, there are certain differences between RIKEN and RIKEN TECHNOS and RIKEN ELASTOMERS.In addition, the owner of the trademark RIKEN VIETNAM has obtained a Letter of Consent from the owner of the cited earlier trademarks allowing the registration and use of this trademark in Vietnam, thereby eliminating the conflict of rights between them. As a result, the applied-for trademark RIKEN VIETNAM meets the conditions for registration.

Held that the Appellant’s argument is well-founded, the IP Vietnam issued Decision No. 64404/QD-SHTT dated April 29, 2025 revoking the previous Decision No. 74940/QD-SHTT and accepting the registration of the trademark RIKEN VIETNAM./.