Claim No: IP-2022-000066 - [2024] EWHC 1369 (IPEC)

The use of Sign 2 complained of is in the name of a product which must be requested orally, in store, to purchase. I accept that Sign 2 in the context of the name of a burger (as distinguished from the use of “MMM” as a word within a sentence or strapline, as in the Morley’s Red and White Mark), can naturally and easily be pronounced “Triple M”, as in, “I’ll have a Triple M Burger please”. I am satisfied that a substantial subset of each class of average consumer would refer to it in that way, although others might use the other ways in which it can be said. To that extent, I accept the Claimant’s case that Sign 2 would be perceived by both classes of average consumer as aurally and conceptually identical to the Triple M Mark, although visually dissimilar.

On a global assessment, then, I find Sign 2 is similar to the Triple M Mark to a medium-high degree.