Three months ago, we have blogged on the highly reported (on the Portuguese newspapers) dispute over the exclusive right to use the sign “O LICOR DE PORTUGAL” / “O LICOR NACIONAL” (“The Portuguese Liquor” / “The National Liquor”).

On a preliminary injunction decision, the Intellectual Property Court heldthat the phrase "O LICOR DE PORTUGAL” (“The Portuguese Liqueur”) cannot be exclusively owned by one party and that, therefore, nothing hindered other party from using the same or similar sign. It is added that the ruling considered that there is no graphical, aural or another similarity that creates likelihood of confusion on the part of the public between the two signs, as their overall composition is in fact different.

J. CARRANCA REDONDO appealed of such decision to the Tribunal da Relação de Lisboa (Lisbon Court of Appeal), which has now (the decision is dated 30 April 2013) issued its judgement, holding the decision of the first instance court.

Although we have not had access to the full court decision (hopefully, the same will be published in the near future), the following parts of the judgement were disclosed in the Portuguese press:

“Placed side by side on the supermarkets’ shelves, the bottles are easily distinguishable by costumers with at least a minimum attention and that are familiar with Licor Beirão” (one might argue that this argument is dubious, but I won’t criticize it without having prior access to the full decision and the context from which this quotation results)

“It is unquestionable that there is a competition relation. However, as noted, nothing was found in this injunction to support its unfairness, i.e., nothing was found that contradict the rules and honest practices of the economic activity developed by these two companies”.

This decision will now become final. However, several related to procedures are still pending:

• An action for the annulment of Portuguese Trade Mark no. 486675 “LICOR NACIONAL” (owned by CAVES DA MONTANHA - A.HENRIQUES, LDA.) – the main action related with the above referred to preliminary injunction procedure – is currently pending on the Intellectual Property Court.
• INPI is currently analysing the application for the registration of Portuguese Trade Mark no. 500024 “LICOR NACIONAL”, on behalf of CAVES DA MONTANHA - A.HENRIQUES, LDA., that has been subject of opposition of J. CARRANCA REDONDO, but also from CEREALIS – PRODUTOS ALIMENTARES, S.A. (a third party company who owns several Portuguese Trade Marks and Logotypes composted by / containing the word “NACIONAL”).
• At the same time, on 6 February 2013, J. CARRANCA REDONDO, LDA. applied for the registration of Portuguese Trade Mark no. 509685 “O LICOR DE PORTUGAL” (word mark) for “liqueurs”. However, on 12 April 2013, XARÃO – COMPANHIA PORTUGUESA DE LICORES, LDA. – a third party to this prior procedures – has filed an opposition against such registration. We are not aware of the grounds of the opposition, but we wonder if the same is based on part of the company’s business name – “COMPANHIA PORTUGUESA DE LICORES” – and/or on absolute grounds of refusal (considering that XARÃO does not seem to own any similar trade mark).

Once again, we can say that this dispute is far from over…