European Union trademark (EUTM) registration: Declaring invalid an EU trademark

Recently the final decision was made by the General Court of European Union regarding EUTM registration after the dispute was ongoing throughout three instances. After contrary decisions were made by the Opposition Division and Board of Appeal of EUIPO, the Court evaluated the possible likelihood of confusion between the following European Union trademarks:

The Court evaluated the visual, phonetical and conceptual similarity between these EU trademarks.

Visually there exists an average level of similarity as both of them contain the word “art” and a star before it. Even though the contested European Union trademark registration contains also a word “shop”, it does not have any strong meaning that would hide the similarity between the part “*art”. Even though the font and colour is different, the overall impression of both trademarks is similar.

The same argumentation applies to phonetical similarity of both trademark registrations as the main part that will be recognized is “art”, which is identical for both marks.

Conceptually, the word “art” has the main meaning and the word “shop” can be interpreted as an action “to buy” or “to shop for” art, therefore also conceptual meaning of both EU trademarks is similar.

The similarity between both marks is intensified with a fact that both of the European Union trademarks are registered for identical or similar goods.

The General Court held that there exists a likelihood of confusion between these trademarks and annulled the Board of Appeal decision not to declare the contested EU trademark registration invalid.

To find out more about the European Union trademark (EUTM) registration or the opposition against EU trademarks, please contact our English speaking lawyers at info@gencs.eu.

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