Keeping with the rule of “first use,” just because your competitor has yet to register its trademark with MyIPO doesn’t give you legal grounds to appropriate it for yourself. While you can certainly pay to file an application on the trademark that your competitor uses, your application will be open to opposition at some point – and all your competitor has to do is prove first use of the trademark for your application to be denied.

In general, it is not advisable to pursue any trademarks for which your competitor can invoke the rule of “first use”. In some rare cases, though, it is possible to obtain the trademark rights to your competitors’ intellectual property.