International Awards Group LLC v Asian Advertising Festival (Spikes) Asia Pte Limited

This decision concerns an application to register the trade mark ‘AME’ in class 41, opposed by Asian Advertising Festival (Spikes) Asia Pte Limited. The applicant, International Awards Group LLC, sought to register the mark for entertainment services in the nature of award competitions and ceremonies promoting excellence in advertising and marketing. The opponent, which owns registered Australian trade marks ‘AME’ and ‘AME AWARDS’ with a priority date of 11 June 2010, argued that the applicant's mark should not be registered.

The primary legal issue before the Hearing Officer was whether the grounds of opposition, as provided by the relevant legislation, had been established on the balance of probabilities. Specifically, the Hearing Officer had to consider whether the applicant's proposed trade mark was deceptively similar to the opponent's registered marks, and whether the applicant's mark was likely to cause confusion or deceive the public. The relevant date for assessing these grounds was the priority date of the opposed application.

The Hearing Officer reasoned that the onus was on the opponent to establish the grounds of opposition to the ordinary civil standard, rather than a higher standard of "clearly not to be registered." The evidence indicated that the opponent had used its ‘AME’ and ‘AME AWARDS’ trade marks since 1996, with registered Australian trade marks dating from 11 June 2010. The applicant had commenced use of a remodelled logo using the letters ‘AME’ in 2009. Despite the applicant's use, the Hearing Officer found that the opponent had successfully established grounds for opposition.

Consequently, the Hearing Officer refused to register the trade mark. The opponent, having been successful, was awarded its costs against the applicant, to be assessed on the official scale.