IPO rejects opposition to YOU CAN'T BE A VIRGIN ALL YOUR LIFE ITS TIME mark for telecoms

A hearing officer of the Intellectual Property Office has dismissed Virgin Enterprises Limited's opposition to an application to register YOU CAN'T BE A VIRGIN ALL YOUR LIFE ITS TIME for, among other things, telecommunications in class 38. Virgin Enterprises relied on its earlier registrations of VIRGIN for identical services in class 38 to oppose the mark under section 5(2)(b) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 (TMA). The hearing officer held that there was very little similarity between the marks, and that the average consumer would not assume that there was an economic association between the parties so as to give rise to a likelihood of confusion. The hearing officer also dismissed Virgin Enterprises' opposition under section 5(3) of the TMA, which was based on its earlier mark VIRGIN MOBILE in classes 9 and 38. He held that, although the name VIRGIN MOBILE had acquired a reputation as a trade mark in relation to mobile phones and telecoms, the relevant public would not make a link between the respective marks on account of their lack of similarity. The hearing officer did not consider that the applicant's ordinary English-language use of the word "virgin" amounted to taking advantage of the VIRGIN mark. Case: Application no. 2466095 to register the trade mark YOU CAN'T BE A VIRGIN ALL YOUR LIFE ITS TIME and opposition no. 96472, BL 0-216-09, 23 July 2009.

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