On 30 September 2015, the General Court of the European Union (T-364/13) ruled that the caiman logo that Polish apparel company Mocek and Wenta sought to register with the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) was similar enough to Lacoste’s iconic crocodile logo to cause confusion. Thus, the Court upheld the OHIM’s refusal to register the sign
Continue Reading Lacoste Wins EU Trademark Fight Over its Crocodile Logo
On 5 March 2015, the German Federal Court of Justice (I ZR 161/13) issued a ruling that two wordmarks that consist of the same three letters, albeit in a different order (here: IPS and ISP), might lead to confusion as to the origin of goods and services sold under these marks. In particular, the Court noted that the pronunciation of the individual letters in their given order had the same sequence of vowels (here: i-e-e, German pronunciation). Thus, the Court found there to be a likelihood of confusion between the two wordmarks that were both used for IT services.
Continue Reading Likelihood of Confusion in the Case of Wordmarks that Use Identical Letters, Albeit in a Different Order – IPS/ISP