In Bacardi & Company Limited v Michael Kleanthis & Sons OE, Bacardi secured an injunction to stop  Kleanthis using its MARTINI trade marks (Decision 30935/2010, 21 October 2010).  Thessaloniki-based Kleanthis was mainly active in the clothing sector, while Bacardi was the proprietor of a number of national, Community and international trade mark registrations for MARTINI in respect of clothing, alcoholic drinks and related products (including Classes 25, 32 and 33).

Although the various disputes between the parties were supposed to have been settled by agreement, Bacardi learned that, notwithstanding the agreement, Kleanthis continued using the MARTINI marks without authorisation (on goods and in domain names) during and beyond the grace period provided for by the agreement.  Bacardi then sued for trade mark infringement and breach of the settlement agreement. Kleanthis denied liability.

In holding for Bacardi the court recognised that the MARTINI marks were well known and held that the use of a domain name is equivalent to use in trade or trade mark use.  The court added that the registration and continued use of the domain names - regardless of whether they were active at the time of trial - constituted an infringement, thus clearly rejecting a frequently used line of defence in cases such as this one.

Source: "Spirits company successfully enjoins use of marks for clothes", article by Eleni Lappa (Drakopoulos Law Firm, Athens) for World Trademark Review.