Examining Attorney Jennifer D. Richardson submitted a dictionary definition of "spectacles," copies of third-party registrations that included both "sunglasses" and "spectacles," and copies of Internet pages displaying sunglasses and eyeglasses under the same mark.
Dictionary evidence showed that the terms "spectacles" and "eyeglasses" are synonymous, and that the term "sunglasses" refers to both spectacles and eyeglasses that have been tinted. It was clear that "sunglasses are related to, and indeed, to some extent overlap with, spectacles in that both may be offered as prescription eyewear." The channels of trade overlap, and both sunglasses and spectacles are sold to the general public.Therefore this du Pont factor supported the refusal.
Of course, when marks appear on virtually identical goods, a lesser degree of similarity between the marks is necessary to support of finding a likelihood of confusion.
In the case at hand, both marks share the term DIRK, making them similar in appearance and pronunciation. Consumers will be inclined to focus on the term DIRK in both marks, as it is the first term in the cited mark and the only term in applicant’s mark. The general commercial impression of both marks, DIRK and DIRK BIKKEMBERGS, is that of a person’s name. It is highly likely that consumers will believe that both marks identify the same source and that the cited mark is merely the complete, full name of an individual whose first name is Dirk. The addition of the term BIKKEMBERGS in the cited mark may add to the likelihood of confusion, inasmuch as it would be perceived as a surname.
Applicant asserted that consumers are just as likely to think of "dirk" as having another meaning: "a dagger, especially of the Scottish Highlands." However, there was no evidence to support that contention, and nothing in the nature of the goods would suggest the meaning that applicant proposed.
The dictionary definition of “dirk” as a dagger carries no greater weight than that of the dictionary definition of “Dirk” as a boy’s first name. Accordingly, we find that purchasers are just as likely to perceive either, or both, meanings of the term when encountering applicant’s mark. Since one of the dictionary meanings is similar to the meaning of the name DIRK in the prior registration, the connotations of both marks are similar.
Applicant pointed to several third-party registrations in an attempt to show that the cited mark is weak. As to three of them (DIRK DAGGER, DIRK ZELLER, and DIRK PITT), applicant failed to provide any information regarding the goods or services. As to a fourth, DIRK DEJOINE for clothing, the Board found it readily distinguishable from the cited mark. "That this mark and the cited mark co-exist tells us nothing about whether applicant’s mark, which does not include a unique second element such as DEJOINE, is similar to the cited mark."
And so the Board affirmed the refusal.
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Test Copyright John L. Welch 2013.
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