In Case T-328/17 RENV, the Court confirmed there is no likelihood of confusion between the collective mark HALLOUMI and BBQLOUMI, which a Bulgarian company has applied to register as an EUTM for meat extracts, catering services, cheese etc. The decision came after the CJEU last year set aside an earlier judgment of the General Court. The Court found the signs were similar to a low degree, the earlier mark had weak distinctiveness and consumers would be unlikely to establish a link between the two signs.

In Case T-253/20, the Court reversed the EUIPO decision to refuse to register IT'S LIKE MILK BUT MADE FOR HUMANS for goods in classes 18, 25, 29, 30 and 32. Upholding the appeal by EUTM applicant Oatly, the Court said: "The mark applied for thus conveys a message which is capable of setting off a cognitive process in the minds of the relevant public making it easy to remember and which is consequently capable of distinguishing the applicant's goods from goods which have another commercial origin. The mark applied for therefore has the minimum degree of distinctive character required by Article 7(1)(b) of Regulation 2017/1001."

The Court upheld the Board of Appeal's decision to refuse an EUTM application for EGGY FOOD (figurative) for goods in classes 5, 29, 30 and 32 on the basis that was descriptive under Article 7(1)(c) in Case T-287/20. It said that the mark "considered as a whole, has, from the point of view of the relevant public, a sufficiently direct and concrete relationship with the goods to which it relates, so that the applicant cannot usefully maintain that an effort of interpretation is necessary to perceive its descriptive content".

The Court upheld a finding of no likelihood of confusion between an application for OptiMar (figurative) for goods in classes 3, 5 and 10 and earlier trade mark registrations for Mar/MARin class 5 (Case T-261/19). The Court said: "Notwithstanding the fact that the goods covered by the marks at issue are identical or similar, the low degree of visual similarity and low or, at most, average degree of phonetic and conceptual similarity between those marks, in conjunction with the high level of attention of the relevant public and the weak distinctiveness of the earlier mark, rule out the possibility that the relevant public might think that the goods at issue come from the same undertaking or from economically linked undertakings when they are sold under the marks at issue."

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