Section 9 vs Section 11: what your examination report actually means

Your status changed to “Objected”, you downloaded the examination report, and it reads like a photocopied threat. Strip the boilerplate: virtually every report raises one or both of two objections, and each has a known shape of answer.

Section 9, “your mark isn’t distinctive”

Absolute grounds. The examiner is saying the mark describes the goods (“Fresh Bakes” for a bakery), praises them (“Supreme”), or is customary in the trade, and therefore can’t distinguish your goods from anyone else’s. The reply argues one or more of: the mark is suggestive, not descriptive (it hints, it doesn’t define); it’s coined or arbitrary for these goods; or, the heavyweight, it has acquired distinctiveness through use, proven with an affidavit carrying sales figures, oldest invoices, advertising spend and press. Adjectives don’t move examiners; exhibits do.

Section 11, “someone similar got there first”

Relative grounds. The report cites earlier marks the examiner considers confusingly similar. A reasoned reply distinguishes on the recognised axes: the marks compared as wholes (the anti-dissection rule, courts forbid chopping marks into pieces and comparing fragments); different goods and trade channels; the shared element being common to the trade and thus weak; the cited mark being abandoned, withdrawn or opposed; or coexistence already tolerated on the register. Where a citation is genuinely close, pragmatic moves exist too, narrowing your specification, or obtaining the earlier owner’s consent.

The clock and the sequence

The reply is due within 30 days of receiving the report; silence risks the application being treated as abandoned. After filing, the examiner either accepts the mark (onward to the Journal) or lists a show-cause hearing, a short, routine video argument where prepared applicants do well. The full playbook, including what we need from you to start, is on our objection reply page.

The honest odds

Nobody can promise acceptance, anyone who does is selling something. What’s true: a large share of objections exist because templates are cheap for the Registry to issue, and a reasoned, evidenced reply is often all that’s needed. The marks that die at examination are mostly the ones nobody answered, or answered with adjectives.