Smart Cloud Inc. appealed a Trademarks Opposition Board (TMOB) decision rejecting its opposition to IBM's application to register the trademark 'IBM SMARTCLOUD'.
Smart Cloud opposed based on its prior use of the trademark and tradename 'SMARTCLOUD'.
The Federal Court determined that the TMOB erred in relying on a post-2011 dictionary definition of 'cloud', but based on new evidence filed on appeal, found that 'cloud' and 'cloud computing' were well-understood terms by the relevant date.
Consequently, 'SMARTCLOUD' remained a highly suggestive, weak mark.
The Court upheld the TMOB's conclusion that the inclusion of the 'IBM' prefix significantly mitigated the likelihood of confusion.
The appeal was dismissed.
