Objection
Tags: auditieve, auditory, begripsmatige, bezwaar, conceptual, confusion, depot, merk, merkrecht, objection, teken, trade name law, trademark, trademark law, vergelijking, verwarring, visuele.
To obtain a trademark, it must be registered. For Benelux trademarks, this filing must be made by means of a trademark application at the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP). A proprietor of an earlier trademark may object to a new trademark application because he considers that the two signs are confusingly similar. This is called opposition.
Confusion
Whether the opposition succeeds depends on whether the two signs (the mark and the contested sign) are confusingly similar. The BOIP will assess this by making a visual, auditory and conceptual comparison. If the BOIP concludes that there is a likelihood of confusion, the opposition will succeed and the new trademark will not be registered.
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