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Bottom line: The Board found “Tpresso (stylized)” not similar to “Teapresso” nor “PRESSO”.

The applicant filed an International trademark application for “Tpresso (stylized)” in Classes 11 and 30 for inter alia “electric apparatus for use in the preparation of hot beverages; teas”.  The Examiner cited three prior marks below:

<Applied-for mark>

in Classes 11 and 30

<Cited mark A>

in Class 30

<Cited mark B>
Teapresso
(standard character)
in Class 30

<Cited mark C>

inter alia in Class 11

The goods of the application overlap with those of the cited registrations.  The question is whether the marks are confusingly similar or not.

The Board found none of the cited mark is confusingly similar to the applied-for mark reasoning that:

１．As to the cited mark A “PRESSO/PRESSO” and the cited mark C “PRESSO”, the appearance of the marks is clearly distinguishable from that of the applied-for mark “Tpresso”, the sound is not confusingly similar with/without the sound of [T] at the beginning, and the connotation is not comparable because all marks are fanciful without any specific meaning.  Thus, the applied-for mark and the cited marks A and C are not comparable in connotation and not confusingly similar in appearance and sound.

２．As to the cited mark B “Teapresso”, the appearance of the marks is clearly distinguishable from that of the applied-for mark “Tpresso”.  The marks share the sound in common.  The connotation of the marks is not comparable unambiguously because both marks are fanciful, but the impression created by the stylized T in the applied-for mark is significantly different from that created by the term tea (beverage) in the cited mark B.  Overall, even sharing the sound in common, the applied-for mark and the cited mark B are different in appearance and impression, and not confusingly similar to each other.

And so the Board reversed the refusal, and the application for “Tpresso” was granted for registration.

 

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