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Bottom line: The Board found that CAIR is not confusingly similar to CARE.

The applicant filed an international trademark application for CAIR designating wine in Class 33.  The examiner refused to register the mark, citing CARE in standard characters also designating wine, etc. in Class 33.

The designated goods of the applied-for mark are partially identical with those of the cited mark.  So, the question is whether the applied-for mark is similar to the cited mark or not.

The Board analyzed the marks and found as follows:

<As for the applied-for mark>
- The applied-for mark is a fancy word and has no particular meaning.
- The mark will be pronounced either [ke-a], [ka-i-a] or [kya-i-a] as a mark written in alphabet is commonly pronounced in English-wise or so-called Romanized style.
- Besides, in view that production region is valued in the trade of wines, the mark will also be pronounced [ka-i-ru] in Spanish-wise, which is the official language where the applicant resides.

<As for the cited mark>
- The cited mark is a plain English word and means “attention”.
- The mark will be pronounced [ke-a] in English-wise.
- In addition, the mark will also be pronounced [ka-re] in Spanish-wise, which is the official language where the owner of the cited mark resides.

<Comparison>
- The applied-for mark and the cited mark are significantly distinguishable in appearance because both marks are composed of 4 letters and the third and fourth letter, i.e. “IR” v. “RE” differ from each other.
- The marks are identical in sound when pronounced [ke-a].  In other pronunciations, the sounds of the marks are different from each other.
- The marks are not comparable in meaning because the applied-for mark has no particular meaning.
- Despite the one of the pronunciations being identical, the marks are significantly different in appearance and other pronunciations.  Considering these factors comprehensively, the marks are not similar to each other.

And so the Board reversed the refusal and granted registration of “CAIR”.