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Now in its twelfth year, Class 46 is dedicated to European trade mark law and practice. This weblog is written by a team of enthusiasts who want to spread the word and share their thoughts with others.

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FRIDAY, 3 JUNE 2011
General Court: summer time II

In Case T-422/09, the GC overturned the decision of the Second Board of Appeal, holding there is likelihood of confusion between the contested CTM Bahianas and earlier rights Havaianas :

 v 

The element ‘las originales’ although lacking distinctive character, is not insignificant in the overall impression. From the visual point of view, the BOA was censored for not taking into account the oval element which is common to the signs in conflict. From the phonetic point of view ‘havaianas’ and ‘bahianas’ are pronounced almost identically by the Spanish consumer (i.e.: ‘v’ is pronounced like ‘b’ and ‘ha’ may or not be pronounced with an aspirated ‘h’). Conceptually, “bahiano” is a Spanish word which refers to the island of Bahía in Honduras, and thus for those consumers for which the signs have a meaning whereas the earlier right is a reference to Hawai, they both refer to the concept of far-away places of vacation and sea.

Therefore, there is a likelihood of confusion for the Spanish consumer for similar goods in Class 25 and the contested CTM must be rejected for ‘Flip-flops, sandals, slippers’.

Posted by: Laetitia Lagarde @ 11.23
Tags: General court, havaianas,
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Submitted By:
03 June 2011 @ 15.38
"Conceptually, “bahiano” is a Spanish word which refers to the island of Bahía in Honduras, and thus for those consumers for which the signs have a meaning whereas the earlier right is a reference to Hawai, they both refer to the concept of far-away places of vacation and sea." Well, but they are different places...

MARQUES does not guarantee the accuracy of the information in this blog. The views are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect those of MARQUES. Seek professional advice before action on any information included here.


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