GITI TIRE PTE. Ltd is a global tire manufacturer based in Singapore and has branches in a number of countries such as US, Canada, England, Germany and China. The Company is exporting its products to more than 100 countries over the world and won more than 20 international awards and quality certificates.

To protect its trademark in Vietnam, on 11 June 2009, GITI TIRE PTE. Ltd filed an application to register the trademark "GITI" in Vietnam through the Madrid international system of registration of trademark. Unfortunately, on 19 August 2010, the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (NOIP) issued a notification of provisional refusal on the protection of the trademark on the ground that it was confusingly similar to the protected trademark "CITI".

The notification came as a surprise to the Company because the trademark "GITI" had been used for a long time with reputation over the world and was protected in a number of countries such as Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Syria, Equador and Egypt,..

Authorized by GITI TIRE PTE. Ltd, PADEMARK made an appeal against the said notification of NOIP. In our observations, the trademark "GITI" is different with the protected trademark "CITI" in terms of visual impression and spelling. Moreover, a number of protected trademarks have the same suffix "-ITI" such as trademarks "hiti" or "Miti" which is not considered confusing similarity.

After taking due regard to our reasonable arguments, on 23 December 2010, NOIP invalidated the said notification and registered the trademark "GITI" in Vietnam.

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