UK Trade Marks Registry: Application for Declaration of Invalidity

Application for Declaration of Invalidity against Registration No.2313965 Cbd (+ Device) In The Name Of Alan Finch
The registered proprietor (AF) was involved in the business of selling retro football shirts and had registered the mark CBD (+ Device) for clothing. The applicant, Score Draw Limited, was in the same business and applied to invalidate the registered proprietor's mark.

This retro mark had been used by the Official Sports Governing Body in Brazil (The CBD) between 1914 and 1971. The retro mark had been used in relation to all sports for which the CBD was responsible including the Brazilian football team. In 1971 the responsibility was handed over to the CBF (The Brazilian Football Federation) and the retro mark then underwent a number of changes bringing it to its present form used by the CBF today.

The applicant claimed that it had been selling retro shirts since the early 1990's under the retro mark. In addition there were other third parties using the retro mark on retro shirts. In argument to this AF said that he had an exclusive reputation in the retro brazil shirts and argued that the retro mark was associated exclusively with him.

The applicant applied for invalidity under Section 3 (1) (b)(c)(d) and Section 3 (6) of the Trade Mark Act 1994.

The Decision
Under Section 3 (1) (d) a trade mark will be refused registration if it has become customary in the language in respect of the goods or services for which it is used. The Hearing Officer in this case held that there was no evidence to show that the applicant or other third parties used the mark in a customary way. Furthermore it was not clear that the mark that the applicant used was identical to that applied for and registered by AF.

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