The short version: an objection is a written query in your examination report, almost always under Section 9 (mark not distinctive) or Section 11 (similar earlier mark). A reasoned reply must be filed within 30 days. If the examiner isn’t persuaded on paper, the matter goes to a show-cause hearing. We read your report free of charge and quote a fixed fee for the reply.
Decoding your examination report
The report is a template with teeth. Strip the boilerplate and it says one, sometimes both, of two things:
Section 9, “your mark isn’t distinctive”
Raised when a mark looks descriptive of the goods (“Fresh Bakes” for a bakery), laudatory (“Supreme”), generic, or customary in the trade. The reply argues that the mark is suggestive rather than descriptive, that it’s a coined or arbitrary term, or, where there’s real trading history, that it has acquired distinctiveness through use, backed by an affidavit with sales figures, invoices, advertising and press.
Section 11, “someone similar got there first”
The report cites earlier marks the examiner considers confusingly similar. The reply distinguishes: different goods and trade channels, different overall impression when the marks are compared as wholes, the shared element being common to the trade, coexistence already on the register, or the cited mark being abandoned or withdrawn. Where appropriate we also obtain consent or pursue removal of a dead cited mark.
What a strong reply looks like
- Answers every ground raised, examiners notice silence
- Argues the law with authority: the comparison-as-a-whole principle, the anti-dissection rule, the treatment of common-to-trade elements
- Attaches evidence, not adjectives: user affidavits, invoices, listings, ad spend
- Proposes practical narrowing where it helps, a tighter specification can dissolve a Section 11 citation
- Is filed well inside the 30-day window, with proof
If it goes to a hearing
No reason to despair, show-cause hearings are routine, now mostly conducted by video. We prepare written submissions, compile the evidence book and appear on your behalf. The realistic outcomes: acceptance (often with a condition or disclaimer), or refusal, which itself can be taken further on review or appeal. We’ll always tell you honestly which fights are worth funding.
What we need from you
Just two things to start: your application number, and (if you’re trading already) whatever use evidence exists, oldest invoices, packaging photos, website and listing screenshots. We’ll pull the examination report, read it, and come back the same day with our view and a fixed quote. WhatsApp it to us and we’ll take it from there.