The General Court annulled the OHIM’s decision finding likelihood of confusion for identical goods in Classes 18 and 25, between ANN TAYLOR LOFT and earlier French trademark LOFT in Judgment T-385/09.

It censored the Board for basing itself on a false premiss that the word LOFT would be perceived as a meaningless English noun or as a surname by the French public.

Indeed, as the Opposition Division had already noted in its decision, ‘loft’ is a word that, although originating from the equivalent English word, has become a French word in its own right, referring to a storage room converted into a living space for private or commercial purposes. In the overall impression given by the mark applied for, the ‘ann taylor’ element with clear reference to first names, or to a first name and an English surname, is much more distinctive than the word ‘loft’, due to its clear and specific meaning in French, thus the overall similarity between the signs is weak.

Having regard to the nature of the goods, and in relation to the branding of clothing products, the target public, accustomed to the same clothing company using sub‑brands that derive from the principal mark, will not be able to establish a connection between the signs ANN TAYLOR LOFT and LOFT, since the earlier mark does not include the ‘ann taylor’ element, the most distinctive element, followed by the name of the line( i.e: sport, formal, casual,etc).