An Austrian pharmaceutical company tried to stop a Ukrainian registration of «Ewe» because all three of its letters sit inside «EBEWE». The Appeal Chamber dismissed the opposition — and the reasoning is a clean illustration of how Ukrainian practice weighs the three limbs of similarity.

What happened

In October 2025 UANIPIO decided to register the word mark «Ewe» (application No. m202407447, class 5) for a Ukrainian manufacturer. The owner of the international registration «EBEWE» (also class 5), whose oncology products are known to Ukrainian doctors, opposed.

The opponent's case

• EWE is entirely contained within EBEWE (EB-EWE) — the same letter sequence, differing only by one «B» in the middle, which the consumer may not notice;
• both marks are short and invented, which is said to increase the risk of confusion;
• the same class 5, the same pharmacy channels, the same purchaser;
• the opponent has been known in Ukraine since at least 2017, so consumers might assume «Ewe» also belongs to it.

The opponent also relied on its trade name.

The applicant's answer

• three letters against five — a different visual impression;
• they are read differently: «Ewe» in English is a single syllable, «EBEWE» has three;
• «ewe» is a real English word — a female sheep — so the mark carries meaning;
• the goods differ: toilet paper, napkins and towels sold through the applicant's own retail network, not medicines;
• the applicant even offered to narrow the specification by removing everything strictly medical.

How the Board reasoned

The essential point: similarity of word marks is assessed on three limbs together — phonetic, visual and conceptual — from the perspective of the average consumer.

Phonetically: one open syllable against three. Different length, different syllable count, different reading rules.

Visually: shared letters exist, but three against five, and the opening «eb» changes the overall impression.

Conceptually — and this decided it: «ewe» is an English dictionary word, so the mark evokes a concrete image, while «EBEWE» is an invented designation with no meaning. The Board relied on an English-Ukrainian dictionary for the point.

Taken together, «Ewe» was held not similar to the degree of confusion with «EBEWE».

And the trade name?

The Board accepted that the opponent's name is indeed known in Ukraine in the pharmaceutical field — but that does not extend to goods outside it, which is where the applicant's products sit.

Practical points

• the fact that an earlier mark «sits inside» a later one does not by itself make them confusingly similar;
• a short name with a meaning is stronger than a short name without one — meaning helps to distinguish;
• different goods and trade channels substantially reduce the risk even for close names;
• narrowing the specification is a working tool for removing a citation.

If you are clearing short marks for Ukraine

Short signs are where Ukrainian practice diverges most from intuition — containment is not similarity, and meaning carries real weight. We run clearance searches and handle oppositions before the Appeal Chamber. More on how we work with IP firms.

See also: Free Ukrainian trademark search · Madrid designations in Ukraine