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IP News
Green Cab Pizza Haus Found Infringing Yellow Cab Pizza Co. In his Decision, Director General Adrian Cristobal found that GREEN CAB PIZZA HAUS is a colorable imitation of YELLOW CAB PIZZA CO. Director General Cristobal concurred with the findings of Director Estrellita Beltran-Abellardo of the Bureau of Legal Affairs, in this wise: "At the core of the issues presented before this forum is the appropriation of the words ‘GREEN CAB’ in Respondent’s mark which is considered a colorable imitation of the dominant, essential and distinguishing features of Complainant’s service mark…The adoption by Respondents of a dominant portion of Complainant’s service mark for use on identical goods constitutes an infringement of Complainant’s trademark rights…" "…The combination of a color and a cab or vehicle presents a very unique and distinctive choice of word-combination to arrive at a registrable trademark for a pizza business, this concept of associating a color with a cab becomes Complainant’s source identifier. Respondent’s union of the color GREEN with the word CAB for pizza business is identical or closely resembles Complainant’s word-combination that the use or adoption thereof has continued to create confusion between the competing marks. Anyone is likely to be misled by the adoption of the same word-combination. Hence, Respondent’s mark GREEN CAB PIZZA HAUS lacks the element of originality to be sufficiently distinctive. Such word-combination as Complainant’s mark is not one that would naturally occur to respondents or any other trader for that matter to use or conceptualize." DG Cristobal concluded that Appellant GREEN CAB PIZZA HAUS’s use of its mark will likely cause confusion, mistake or deception on the buying public. On unfair competition, DG Cristobal said that YELLOW CAB PIZZA CO. has already established goodwill over its pizza business through the use of the mark YELLOW CAB PIZZA CO. and has identified in the mind of the public the pizza it deals in. GREEN CAB PIZZA HAUS, on the other hand, belatedly used the mark GREEN CAB PIZZA HAUS which is a colorable imitation of Yellow Cab’s mark. Green Cab has clothed its goods with the general appearance of Yellow Cab’s goods obviously to get a free ride on the goodwill associated with Yellow Cab’s mark and its established business thereby saving Green Cab from the expenses in creating market recognition of its products.
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