Successful appealed, FOREVER 21 accepted for protection in Vietnam

Trademark application No. 4-2010-17485 - FOREVER 21 filed on August 18, 2010 (applied-for trademark for the product “sunglasses” in Class “jewelry, namely rings, earrings, watches, necklaces, bracelets” in Class 14 and “handbags; wallets; handbags for women; shoulder bags; large bags for storing things without lids; shopping bags in Class 18 has been refused by the IP Vietnam on the grounds of being confusingly similar to the earlier trademark “Forever 18” protected under the Registration Certificate No.74061 for the product “all kinds of clothing (excluding protective clothing against accidents, radiation and fire and clothing used in operating rooms)” in Class 25 as prescribed in Article 74.2 (e) of the IP Law

Arguing that FOREVER 21 is not confusingly similar to “Forever 18” the Applicant appealed the above decision of the IP Vietnam as follows:

(i) First, “FOREVER 21” registered for the products in Classes 09, 14, 18 and 25 as mentioned above has been widely known to consumers through a network of nearly 600 “FOREVER 21”, abbreviated as “F21”, stores operating in over 50 countries through America, Europe, to Asia... The first F21 store opened in Los Angeles, California, USA in 1984. In Vietnam, Forever 21, Inc. established a representative office in Ho Chi Minh City since 2011, and many Vietnamese consumers have known this brand when traveling and shopping in Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Thailand...

(ii) Vietnamese people in general and relevant consumers in particular do not confuse “Forever 18" with “FOREVER 21” because to them these two words are completely different in appearance, pronunciation and meaning. It should be noted that, in principle, the IP Law stipulates that simple characters, shapes, geometric figures, numbers... [for example, 18 and 21] are considered non-distinctive and therefore unregistable. However, in this case, when the numbers 21 and 18 are combined with "FOREVER" to form “Forever 21” and “forever 18”, these word sets have a completely defined and clearly distinct meaning. The word sets “forever 18” and “forever 21” used either in everyday contexts nor in social relations always make a strong impression and are never confused with each other;

(iii) The search results conducted by the applicant show that in addition to the pre-existing trademark "Forever 18" under Trademark Registration No.74061, there are other trademarks containing "FOREVER" that have been accepted by the IP Vietnam for protection of garment products in Class 25, such as "Forever Young DUGARCO, image" under Trademark Registration No.109086, "FOREVER SENPRODIMEX" under Trademark Registration No.237686 and "Forever Friends, image" under Trademark Registration No.199189. The parallel existence of the above trademarks for the same products in Class 25 without causing confusion to consumers shows that it is not "FOREVER" but the second element, namely 18 or 21, are the dominating factors which  make the trademark distinctive;

(iv) In terms of product nature and distribution channels, the products in Classes 09, 14 and 18 of the applied-for trademark "FOREVER 21" and the products in Class 25 of the cited earlier trademark "Forever 18" are not similar.

Finding that the above arguments of the Appellant are well-founded and after having examined the relevant evidence, the IP Vietnam issued Decision No. 150554/QĐ-SHTT dated 25/07/2025  to revoke the previous Notice of refusal and accept the registration of the trademark FOREVER 21./.