Relative grounds for refusal of European Union trade mark registration
 made a decision regarding the relative grounds for refusal of European Union...)
Recently the General Court (European Union) made a decision regarding the relative grounds for refusal of European Union trade mark registration. The General Court discussed the diverse decisions made by the Opposition Division of the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the Board of Appeal when solving the dispute between the following European Union trade marks:
The General Court based its decision mainly on two arguments – the perception of marks by the relevant public and the comparison between the visual and phonetic aspects of marks.
The General Court determined that the consumers of the earlier marks are the general public in Germany or EU with a normal level of attention.
Moreover, the Court argued that components of the opposed trade mark “P Pro Player” are visually co-dominant – the components “Pro Player” do not have strict distinctive meaning, thus it will be perceived together with the figurative component “P” and the European Union trade mark will be remembered as a whole.
Regarding the comparison of the visual and phonetic aspects of the trade marks the Court upheld the reasoning of the Board of Appeal of EUIPO and determined that overall impression of the marks in comparison is different as the dissimilarities outweighed the similarities.
Taking into account the argumentation described above the General Court decided that there is no likelihood of confusion between the marks and dismissed the actions of declaring invalid the European Union trade mark registration.
To find out more about the European Union trade mark registration or the opposition against EU trade marks, please contact our English speaking lawyers at info@gencs.eu.