CTA’s OTC Hearing Aid Logo ‘Sufficiently Similar’ to Bose App Trademark, Says PTO

​CTA’s October application to register as a “certification mark” the logo it designed to identify reputable over-the counter devices for consumers with mild or moderate hearing loss (see 1710170016) ran into roadblocks at the Patent and Trademark Office when examiners ruled the logo bears striking similarity to a Bose trademark for a headphone listening app, agency records show. CTA applied to register the logo to identify OTC hearing aids that meet minimum performance requirements as specified in the ANSI/CTA-2051 standard approved about a year ago. PTO examiners refused the application on grounds that the CTA logo is “sufficiently similar” to a logo for which Bose landed a trademark registration certificate on Jan. 16 and is using commercially to promote its Bose Hear listening-enhancement app to U.S. consumers through the App Store and at Google Play. When paired with specific models of Bose “Hearphones” headsets, the app “makes live listening better” by letting the user reduce noise or amplify softer sounds or adjust the “microphone arrays” on each earbud to make conversation clearer from the direction one wants, say Bose promotional materials. The CTA and Bose marks “create the same general overall commercial impression because the marks share the same appearance and connotation created by a similar ear and sound wave design,” said the PTO examiners. “The likelihood of confusion is increased in this case because the goods and/or services are closely related.” PTO examiners gave CTA a July 24 deadline to respond to the refusal letter. CTA didn’t comment on its next course of action. CTA unveiled the logo at a convention of the Hearing Loss Association of America and formally announced the logo June 22, which happened to be the day Bose applied at PTO to trademark the Bose Hear logo. The Bose logo has been in commercial use since “at least as early as” Nov. 28, 2016, said the application. Bose representatives didn’t comment.