Paris Convention plays in favour of USROBOTICS

A court in Iran has ordered the cancellation of the mark USROBOTICS, finding that it was confusingly similar to a prior US registration (January 27 2007).

Upon discovering that an Iranian individual, Morteza Esmaiilzadeh, had registered the mark USROBOTICS in Iran in Class 9 of the Nice Classification, US Robotics Corporation started cancellation proceedings before an Iranian court on the basis of its US registration for the mark USROBOTICS. Esmaiilzadeh claimed that (i) US Robotics had no prior rights in the USROBOTICS mark in Iran, and (ii) his registration did not cause confusion among consumers.

The court found for US Robotics. It held that the USROBOTICS mark was registered in the United States, which is a member of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. Accordingly, the court was bound to give the mark the same protection as it would give an Iranian mark. The court found that Esmaiilzadeh's registration amounted to unfair competition. Accordingly, it ordered the cancellation of the Iranian registration for USROBOTICS.

Mohammad Badamchi, HAMI Legal Services, Tehran