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X factor in General Court
In Case T-378/12, the General Court decided on the X opposition
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CTM applicant Capitalizaciones Mercantiles Ltda (Colombia) |
Opponent- Leineweber GmbH & Co. KG (Germany) |
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Class 25 goods |
Class 25 goods |
The Opposition Division (OD) rejected the opposition holding that even for similar/identical goods, due to the weak distinctive character of the earlier sign X and the differences between the figurative representations, there could be no likelihood of confusion.
The Board of Appeal cancelled the OD decision, finding that for the average EU Consumer, the signs will be both perceived as the letter X, which share similarities from a visual and aural point of view. Conceptually, the signs share similarity since the letter X is used in math and Internet slang. Regarding the distinctive character of the sign, the BoA rejected the OD’s conclusion and found that the CTMR does not provide for specific rule regarding the protection of letter, the letter X does not have any meaning for the goods in question, it must be considered to have an average degree of distinctive character.
Furthermore, in the clothing sector, it is common that a same brand is represented in different ways for sub-brands of the same goods. Therefore the General Court dismissed the appeal and confirmed there is a risk of confusion.
Posted by: Laetitia Lagarde @ 15.43Tags: general court, likelihood of confusion, x,
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