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Bottom line: The Board concluded that the two marks below are not confusingly similar.

The applicant filed an international trademark application for the mark below in Classes 4, 6, 7, 9, 19, 35, 37, 41 and 42.  The Examiner cited the mark also shown below in Class 7 and refused the application on the ground that the two marks are similar to each other.

<Applied-for mark>


<Cited mark>

The applied-for mark designates vacuum pumps (machines) in Class 7, while the cited mark also designates “dry vacuum pumps” in Class 7.  These goods are obviously identical or similar each other.  So the question is whether the marks are distinguishable or not.  The Board observed the two marks and found as follows:

-　The applied-for mark consists of thirteen triangles forming a large approximate triangle pointing right with the left side curved in.
-　The cited mark is composed of a device element and a letter element within a blue rectangle.  The device element consists of thirteen white triangles forming a large approximate triangle pointing down with the upper hem curved down.  And, the letter element “acSteam” is represented in same font, size and color.
-　The letter element “acSteam” as a whole is a coined word having no specific meaning and is pronounced [a-ku-su-ti:-mu] or [e:-si:-su-ti:-mu].
-　The “acSteam” is represented in bold letter and gives a stronger impression, while the device element is less outstanding.　So, consumers and traders will pay more attention to the sound of the cited mark in the course of the trade.
-　Thus, the device element of the cited mark is not likely function solely as a source identifier.  Therefore, it will be inappropriate to extract the device element from the cited mark and compare it with the applied-for mark.
-　Overall, the applied-for mark and the cited mark are not confusingly similar.

And so the Board reversed the refusal and granted the registration of the applied-for mark.