SINGAPORE - Doctor's Associates, owner of sandwich restaurant chain Subway, has lost its bid to block a Singapore clothing retailer from registering the "Subway" trademark for women's apparel.
The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore's (IPOS) judgment on Monday in favour of clothing retailer Prosperous Enterprise - which Today obtained a copy of - comes at a time when the American sandwich giant is suing a local nyonya kueh retailer for trademark infringement in the High Court.
In the case involving the clothing retailer, Prosperous Enterprise owner Sim Meng Seh had registered the "Subway" trademark for its clothes in 1988.
He had forgotten to renew the registration when it lapsed in 2005 but when he applied to IPOS to do so in April 2007, the sandwich company stepped in to halt the registration.
The restaurateur argued that allowing Mr Sim, 52, to register the trademark would damage its interests, as well as unfairly dilute and take unfair advantage of the distinctive character of its trademark. Subway had registered several trademarks, all of which relate to the food and beverage industry, starting from 1989.
In throwing out Subway's case, principal assistant registrar Lee Li Choon noted that none of the sandwich company's registered trademarks here deal with apparel. Prosperous Enterprises' pink and white "Subway" logo is also very different from the sandwich company's green and yellow version, thus it is unlikely Subway's actual or potential customers would be confused between the two and cause its interests to be hurt, she said.
The registrar also noted that Mr Sim had been dealing in his "Subway" brand of clothes since 1988, some eight years before Subway opened its first outlet here. She ruled that this was relevant in her concluding that Prosperous Enterprises had not unfairly taken advantage of or diluted Subway's name.
Mr Sim's application was allowed and is backdated to his filing date, according to his lawyer Prithipal Singh. Doctor's Associates has 28 days to file an appeal to the High Court.
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