The ones who have knowledge of chicken wings, know that the HOOTERS family is one of the recognized., Our client HI LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, requested the sign HOOTS WINGS, to identify restaurant services. However, the Trademark Authority denied the registration of HOOTS WINGS arguing a resemblance with the 2 registered marks HOT WINGS, with different owners. However, in the appeal we proved the orthographic and phonetic differences between the signs, and most importantly highlighted the ideological difference between the trademarks. Mainly, the mark HOOT WINGS, comes from the entrepreneur of the known family marks of HOOTERS, which is known in the restaurant market. This was the Intellectual Property delegate´s determination for the matter, who affirmed that, for the registered marks there are no exclusivity rights, since they are common expressions. That the term HOOTS, does not have a known meaning, therefore it is distinctive.
This is how our client succeeded in the appeal and managed to register and protect his trademark.
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