The SCC released a significant trademark decision last week, Masterpiece Inc. v. Alavida Lifestyles Inc.,?one which re-examines the legal concept of ?confusion? in trademark law and the befuddled relationship between registered and existing, unregistered trademark rights.
The Appellant,?Masterpiece Inc.,?claimed to have been using their unregistered ?Masterpiece? trademarks since 2001 for their retirement residences in Calgary, Alberta. Alavida applied to register the trademark ?Masterpiece Living? several years later in December 2005 for similar services in Ottawa, Ontario. Alavida?s application was granted. In 2006, Masterpiece applied to register the marks ?Masterpiece? and ?Masterpiece Living?, which was subsequently denied on the basis that Alavida had already applied for the mark. Issue before the Court was: who should prevail, the registered marks or the prior, unregistered marks?
The Court applied the confusion analysis, in particular, considering whether there was a likelihood of confusion between Alavida?s and Masterpiece Inc.?s trademarks pursuant to s.6 of the?Trademarks Act. ?The applicable test is ?whether, as a matter of first impression, the ?casual consumer somewhat in a hurry? who encounters the Alavida trademark, with no more than an imperfect recollection of any one of the Masterpiece Inc. trademarks or tradename, would be likely to think that Alavida was the same source of retirement residence services as Masterpiece Inc.?
Ultimately, because of the?particularly strong similarities between the parties? marks which would lead to confusion of the associated services, and because?it is the use of a trademark and not registration itself that confers priority of title and exclusive right to that trademark,?the Court found for the Appellants and Alavida?s registration was expunged.
Source: http://innovationlawblog.org/2011/05/trademark-decision-masterpiece-inc-v-alavida-lifestyles-inc/
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