IP student materials: what to think about when thinking about a trade mark opposition?

What should one think about when tasked with drafting a trade mark opposition or defending a trade mark application? This is a question that junior lawyers and trainee trade mark attorneys quickly (and regularly) encounter in their professional roles, and can address also thanks to templates and/or guidance from senior colleagues. But what about IP students, both at the undergraduate and postgraduate (eg, LLM) level?

As a student, one is tasked with reading decisions of trade mark offices and courts, but it might be quite challenging to think about what comes before those decisions. What happens after a trade mark applicant has managed to get to the point that their trade mark application is published by the competent Office (whether EUIPO or national trade mark office) and, before there is even time to sigh in relief, someone files a trade mark opposition against their application?

As part of my IP student materials previously published on The IPKat, I have now prepared some guidance for my students regarding trade mark oppositions. Hoping that students at different institutions might find it useful, the guidance, which comes with a CC BY-NC licence, can be accessed here. Some of the text is also reproduced below: