As it had been reported earlier (e.g.here, here, here and here), the Bayerische Brauerbund e.V. (Bavarian Brewers Federation) fought, for years, over several jurisdictions, to prevent the use of the sign "Bavaria" in beers by BAVARIA N.V.

In Portugal, a new episode on this never-ending saga has just been unveiled. Yesterday, more than three years following the notice of the application for protection in Portugal of the International Trade Mark Registration no. 1051133 “BAVARIA”, the granting of said trade mark was published.

In the Portuguese proceedings, Bayerische Brauerbund e.V. claimed that this trade mark application should be refused as it constituted an imitation of Community Trade Mark Application no. 9103367 “BAVARIAN BEER”. This (partly) justified the delay in INPI’s decision, as the proceedings were suspended between September 2011 and April 2013 so that all the stages of the registration of the CTM Application (including an appeal) were concluded.

In a short decision, INPI refused the Plaintiff’s arguments and granted the trade mark registration, stating that there were not enough similarities between the opposing signs that could result in a likelihood of confusion. That was due to the presence of several figurative and word elements in the Applicant’s trade mark that were not part of the opposing trade mark. Further, it was stated that Bavaria N.V. owned several prior trade mark registrations containing the word “BAVARIA”.

The Opponent might yet – within two months – appeal this decision to the Intellectual Property Court.