Sausage Trademark Battle—“Red Bridge” Mark Defeated.

The 50-year-old Black Bridge Foods pressed a charge against the owner of “Red Bridge” mark used on Red Bridge sausages, asserting that the “Red Bridge” mark is similar to its highly recognizable “Black Bridge” mark.  With respect to the sausage trademark battle between the two sausage producers, the Supreme Administrative Court decided in favor of Black Bridge Foods and ordered the owner of “Red Bridge” mark to stop using its mark by the reasoning that the two trademarks in dispute are indeed easily to cause confusion and lead people to mistakenly believe the existence of a licensing relationship between the two producers because the two trademarks both contain a bridge as their main device and are used on sausage products.

The owner of “Red Bridge” mark filed an application for registering the “Red Bridge” and device mark in 2007 and the application was then approved by the TIPO, against which the owner of “Black Bridge” mark filed an opposition.  TIPO then examined the opposition request and decided to cancel the registration of “Red Bridge” and device mark in August 2009 on the ground of similarity between the two trademarks.  The owner of “Red Bridge” mark disagreed with such a decision and initiated administrative proceedings.

The founder of Red Bridge sausages, Mr. Huang Guo-Hui argued that he designed and drew a bridge device similar to Taiwan’s famous “Guandu Bridge” and filed an application for registering the said mark which was then approved in 2007; he never intended to plagiarize the design of “Black Bridge” mark.  Huang pointed out many differences between the two trademark in disputes in Chinese characters, pronunciations, bridge devices, circle frame, color, and ideas.  More than this, Huang indicated that “Black Bridge” mark also includes English words of “BLACK BRIDGE”, and that Red Bridge sausages rose in night market with prepared and cooked foods as its main products, while Black Bridge sausages are sold in the form of refrigerated or vacuum-packed gift boxes distributed in retailing stores.

The owner of “Black Bridge” mark countered Huang’s foregoing assertions by maintaining that they are both originated in Tainan City and take “sausage” as their main product.  In addition, the owner of “Black Bridge” mark indicated that the use of “Red Bridge” mark is not a bona fide use under the knowledge that the owner of “Black Bridge” mark had once registered “Red Bridge” as its trademark as well, and that Red Bridge sausages was originally named阿祥香腸in Chinese, but then became famous after renamed as “Red Bridge sausages”.  Based on the foregoing reasons, the owner of “Black Bridge” mark pointed out the plagiarizing intention of its foe.

Furthermore, the owner of “Black Bridge” mark emphasized the high distinctiveness of its mark based on the facts that Black Bridge Foods established its first retailing store in 1963 and has been used its “Black Bridge” mark for several decades.

The Supreme Administrative Court held that the two trademarks in dispute would mistakenly cause people to believe that they are related to each other or in a licensing relationship because they are similar in appearance, device composition, and design and they are both used on the same or similar products, such as meat products, sausages, and seafood products, even though the two trademarks are composed of different Chinese characters.  (2010.11)
/CCS