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Bottom line: The Board found that stylized “bohem” is not confusingly similar to “BOHÈME”.

An individual filed a trademark application for stylized “bohem” shown below designating personal ornaments [jewelry], etc. in Class 14 and brooches for clothing, insignias for wear [not of precious metal], etc. in Class 26, which was registered without examiner’s refusal.  Montblanc Simplo GmbH filed an opposition against the registration on the ground that the opposed mark is confusingly similar to its own prior mark “BOHÉME” covering identical goods in Class 14.

<Opposed mark>

The Board observed the marks at issue and found as follows:

<As for the opposed mark>
- From the fact that an English word “Bohemian” is pronounced [bo-he-mi-a-n], “bohem” will be pronounced [bo-he-mu], and “bohem” has no particular meaning.
- The opponent argued that the sound of the mark is [bo-e-mu].  However, the Board found the argument is not reasonable, because it is uncommon that “h” is silent in English-wise pronunciation.

<As for the cited mark>
- “BOHÈME” is pronounced [bo-e-mu] as it has an accent grave on the first “E”.  “BOHÈME” has no particular meaning.
- The opponent argued that “BOHÈME” may also be pronounced [bo-he-mu] citing one blog article, in which “BOHÈME” was transliterated to [bo-he-mu] in katakana.  However, the Board did not take it sufficient to confirm that “BOHÈME” is pronounced [bo-he-mu].

<Comparison>
- The opposed mark and the cited mark are visually distinguishable as the marks differ in the fourth letter “e” v. “È” and the last letter “m” v. “E”.
- The marks are phonetically distinguishable as they have merely 3 sounds and are different in the middle sound [he] v. [e].
- The marks do not cause confusion semantically as they have no particular meaning respectively.
- In conclusion, the marks are not confusingly similar to each other.

And so the Board dismissed the opposition.