Court denies Holdham's use of Oxford in trademark

After denied registration of its trademark containing word element "Oxford" and figurative elements "lions" and "shield", French company Holdham filed a complaint against the Trademark Review Board under the State Administration for Industry and Commerce at Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court. The trial court recently quashed Holdham's request on the ground that a publicly known foreign geographical location is unregistrable.

Holdham argued that Oxford is publicly known because of the world reputation of the university there, not because of Oxford the geographic location. In addition, the trademark in question contains an image made up of two lions and a shield, not just the word. That makes the trademark more distinctive.

The court held that Article 10, Paragraph 2 of the Trademark Law requires a foreign geographical name well-known to the public shall not be used as a trademark in an attempt to prevent consumers from confusing the product from that geographical location. Though the trademark contains two lions and a shield, its word element Oxford captures similar size to the figurative elements in the trademark. The court ruled accordingly that registration of trademark is rejected under Article 10, Paragraph 2 of the Trademark Law.