In case T-501/08, the General Court upheld the likelihood of confusion between the figurative trade mark applied for SEE MORE and the earlier Danish and Finish word marks C-MORE for the goods ‘ the computer accessories, in particular for monitors’ in Class 9.

Firstly, the relevant public consisted of the general public of Denmark and Finland who generally showed an average level of attention. Next, the goods covered by the earlier marks were identical to those covered by the trade mark application.

As regards the comparison of the signs, visually there is a low degree of similarity between the marks at issue, in so far as they did not contain the same number of letters and the mark applied for comprised a stylised depiction of a screen represented by a blue casing surrounding the word ‘see’. The Board of Appeal also considered that the dominant element of the contested mark, namely the verbal element ‘see more’ was phonetically and conceptually identical to the earlier marks CMORE. Since the two signs at issue contain the word ‘more’ and the letter ‘c’ of the earlier marks, CMORE will probably be associated by a significant part of the general public in Denmark and Finland with an abbreviation or misspelling of the verb ‘to see’ in English in view of the common practice of sending SMS, the Board of Appeal correctly considered that the relevant public would perceive, in the signs at issue, the concept as ‘see more’.

Taking account of the visual similarly and the phonetical and conceptual identity between the marks at issue, as well as the fact that the goods were identical, the Board of Appeal correctly found that a likelihood of confusion between the marks could not be excluded.