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Does the assessment by the IPOs vary between individual countries? i.e. registering trademark in the US and the UK?

Senior Trademark Attorney

Yes. Each IP office applies its own national trademark law and examination standards. A mark that passes in one jurisdiction may face objections in another, and vice versa.

Some practical differences between the US and UK: the USPTO assesses relative grounds (conflicts with earlier marks) as part of examination; the UKIPO does not raise relative grounds on its own initiative and leaves these to third-party oppositions. Descriptiveness thresholds also differ; the USPTO is generally considered stricter on marks that describe the goods or services they cover. The opposition period in the US is 30 days; in the UK it is two months.

The implication is that each application should be assessed on the merits of the specific jurisdiction, not assumed to follow the path of a previous filing in a different country.

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