Patent Court Decision, 2019Heo6815, decided March 20, 2020 (Amazon Case)2)
The Subject Trademark and the Subject Prior-Registered Trademarks have a
common feature: they include an English word “amazon.” However, the
“AmazoN” part of the Subject Trademark is with little or no distinctiveness
because “amazon” and its Korean transliteration correspond to a well-known
geographical term. Moreover, the letter “Café” lacks distinctiveness on the
designated goods, and therefore, each word cannot be deemed an essential
part of the Subject Trademark. For the same reasons, the English word
“amazon” and its Korean transliteration in the Subject Prior-Registered
Trademarks lack distinctiveness unless there are exceptional circumstances,
such as they have acquired distinctiveness based on use.
In comparing the appearance of the Subject Trademark and the Subject
Prior-Registered Trademarks, we must refer to the basic principle that the
determination shall be based on comparison as a whole. When comparing the
appearance, the presence of an image, shape, letters, font, and the number
of letters vary, and therefore, they are not considered to be similar.