Applied-for mark  “DOW, figure” is opposed

The Dow Chemical Company (the opponent), headquartered at Midland, Michigan 48674, the United States, owner of National (VN) Trademark Registration no.201465 “DOW, figure” currently in effect  in Vietnam for “water cleaning equipment and machines; water purification equipment; filter cores for industrial water filtration equipment used to remove dissolved solids from water by reverse osmosis, filter cores for industrial water filtration equipment used to remove ultra-fine suspended solids and large molecules dissolved solids out of the water by ultrafiltration” in Class 11 (the cited trademark) has petitioned with the IP Vietnam to oppose national applied-for mark application no.4-2018-03630 “NEW DOW, figure” for protection of products “shower; water purification equipment; equipment and chillers; air cleaning machines and equipment; “heating – burning" solar collectors; electric kettle” in Class 1141 on the grounds that the applied-for mark is confusingly similar to the cited mark already registered, in particular: (i) the word-figurative mark applied-for registration contains two words, namely "NEW" and "DOW", among which the word DOW is considered dominant and distinctive element is identical to the cited earlier mark; the word NEW as it describes the goods, being indistinctive, will not be taken into account, and (ii) the products/goods covered by the said marks are similar and/or related to each other.

The opponent also provided evidence accusing the owner of the applied-for mark "DOW, picture" of bad faith filing, intentionally confusing consumers about the origin of the product and taking advantage of reputation of the Dow Chemical Company (referred to as Dow), a leading chemical corporation in the United States, which provides more than 7,000 product lines manufactured from 201 factories located in 36 countries worldwide. Dow has been present in the Vietnamese market for years with famous water filter products such as DOW Filmtec™, Dow IntegraFlux™, DOW AQUALAST™ etc... trusted by consumers. In addition to the objectionable trademark application "DOW, image" in question, the applicant also filed a number of other trademark applications which contain the word "Dow", such as "new Jdow" (application no. 4-2018-03629 ); “Doowi” (application no. 4-2018-03627) and “wi Dow” (application no. 4-2018-03623).

The case is being handled by the IP Vietnam./.