Trademark Oppositions: DUERO Vs MUSEO DEL DUERO and DUERO LEFT
The Spanish company MIRASOL COMPLEMENTOS SL applied for the registration of MUSEO DEL DUERO in China on March 1, 2021 with the application number 53947661 and the designated goods of wine,etc.in the international class 33. The trademark has been examined by China National Intellectual Property Administration(CNIPA) and then allowed for publication for opposition.
The Chinese company Fujian Zhengquan Supply Chain Co., Ltd. applied for the registration of the DUERO LEFT trademark in China on February 2, 2021 with the application number of 53488405 and the designated goods of wine,etc. in the international class 33. The trademark has been examined by China National Intellectual Property Administration(CNIPA) and then allowed for publication for opposition.
CONSEJO REGULADOR DE LA DENOMINACION DE ORIGEN RIBERA DEL DUERO, as the owner of famous European wine geographical indication DUERO, entrusted LEXGOAL LAW OFFICE to file the oppositions against the above-mentioned two trademarks as allowed for publication.
In the opposition case of MUSEO DEL DUERO( 53947661), the trademark attorney believes that the opposed trademark consists of the words “MUSEO del DUERO”,in which the word MUSEO means "museum" and "del" means the Spanish conjunction "of". The text DUERO is the name of a famous river in Spain and Europe. The main identification part of the opposed trademark is DUERO. In the case of DUERO LEFT( 53488405), the trademark attorney believed that the opposed trademark consists of the words DUERO LEFT, and the meaning of LEFT indicated the orientation without distinctive identification, so the main identification part of the opposed trademark was DUERO. In the above-mentioned two cases, the attorneys believed that the opposed two trademarks contained the geographical indication owned by the opponent, and the goods designated by the opposed trademarks did not originate from the area indicated by the mark. The opposed trademarks shall not be registered and their use shall be prohibited in China. In support of the aforementioned claims, the lawyer submitted to CNIPA the table of geographical features of the wine-producing areas of Duero and Rueda, the photocopies of the registration certificates of the opponent’s geographical indications in various countries or regions in the world with the Chinese translations, notarized copies of the rules governing the geographical indication of the opposer as approved by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food with Chinese section translation, some proofs as used in Chinese market, etc..After examination, CNIPA regards that the above proofs may prove: DUERO is the famous designation of origin of wine products in Europe, where the wine products have the special quality and which has certain reputations among the relevant consumers in our country, as publicized and used by the opposer. The opposed trademark fully includes the name of origin “DEURO”, but the trademark applicant does not origin from the region as indicated by the mark. Therefore, it easily misidentify the public if the opposed trademark is allowed for registration.
The two cases demonstrate the policy of CNIPA to favor the strong protection for geographical indications, especially wine geographical indications.
