Opposition Decision Regarding Famous Trademark

 The Registrar of trademarks has issued an important decision regarding opposition based on the well-known trademark. The facts of the case is that an Arab company filed a trademark application for registration of the trademark "VISA & Device" in class 3 and the application was accepted and published.
 
 The American company "Visa International Service Association" (Owner of the trademark in another class) filed an opposition against the mentioned application despite the fact that it did hold a registration or use of the trademark in class 3.
 
 Recently, the Registrar has issued his decision No. 66 of March 30, 2003 regarding this opposition to accept the opposition and not to proceed with the registration of the opposed trademark application.
 
 The decision stated also that the trademark "VISA" is considered a famous mark and a well-known commercial name for the opponent company "Visa International Service Association" that will lead to confuse the consumers if used by the applicant.
 
 The importance of this decision is that it is the first decision in favor of the opponent based on a famous trademark and a well-known commercial name without prior registration or use of a similar trademark in the same class of the opposed trademark.
 
 AGIP/ Yemen