Director Yvonne Tang quoted in Asia IP article on The a2 Milk Company Limited v Société des Produits Nestlé S.A. trademark case

07 Oct 2022

Director Yvonne Tang shared her insights with Asia IP on The a2 Milk Company Limited v Société des Produits Nestlé S.A. case.

The trademark case involved New Zealand-based dairy producer, The a2 Milk Company, which opposed the multinational food and beverage conglomerate’s trademark application before the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) for goods under Class 5 and 29. The main point of contention was whether the a2 Milk Company’s “A2” mark was similar to Nestle’s mark which contained the word “Pro-Atwo” as one of its components and that consumers would likely be confused. The Hearing Officer decided that the two marks were more dissimilar than similar, visually and aurally.

According to Yvonne, one of the key takeaways from the case is that the degree of protection afforded to short word marks may be low. She added, “Proprietors would therefore do well to deliberate if they are prepared to co-exist with a competitor’s mark that merely incorporates an additional letter or numeral, or that differs only by a single letter or numeral. If not, these proprietors ought to consider adopting a more suitable trademark, or be ready to adduce – in times of dispute – evidence of use which would go towards showing that the short mark has acquired distinctiveness.”

You may click here to read the full article that appears on Asia IP.