Taiwan Intellectual Property Court (TIPC) rendered a judgment on October concerning a trademark dispute between the trademarks “aman” and “AMANRESORTS”, which are owned by Taipei Aman Development Co., Ltd. and Aman Resorts separately.

The “aman” trademark was originally registered by a local realty development company and use said trademark in real estate and building industry in 2003. The company transferred the trademark to Aman Development in 2005.

Aman Resorts then filed an invalidation action with TIPO on the ground that the “aman” trademark is similar to their “AMANRESORTS” and “AMAN” trademarks registered earlier. TIPO rendered a ruling of invalidation in fovor of Aman Resorts. Aman development subsequently filed an appeal from the ruling of TIPO, but was rejected by the Bureau of Economic Affairs. Thereafter Aman Development brought a suit against TIPO to Taiwan Intellectual Property Court (TIPC). The primary proposition of Aman Development is that the trademark is used in different services and products and the trademark is different: one is capitalized and the other is uncapitalized. As a response, Amen Resorts provided many travel magazines and reports regarding their resorts to prove they had use “AMAN” and “AMANRESORTS” prior to their opposite party.

The judge of TIPC rendered a judgment in favor of Aman Resorts, stating that the trademarks at dispute were similar in appearance and pronunciation, the only difference is between capitalized letters and uncapitalized letters and rejected the claim of the plaintiff.

Tai E International Patent & Law Office represented the Aman Resorts in filing a petition to TIPC and the following lawsuit.