In a note last month in World Trademark Report, Almar Sehver (AAA Legal Services, Tallinn) writes up the decision of the Estonian Board of Appeal in Coca-Cola Company v Cido Partikas Grupa SIA (Case 939-o, 21 April 2008). Latvian-based Cido (a subsidiary of Royal Unibrew) applied to register the figurative mark FANTASTIKA for soft drinks in Estonia. Coca-Cola opposed, citing its earlier registered trade mark FANTA for soft drinks and maintaining that, on account of the identity of goods and similarity of the respective marks, there was a likelihood of confusion.

The Board of Appeal disagreed. Even though, in its opinion, FANTA was a well-known and highly distinctive trade mark, there was no likelihood of confusion among consumers due to (i) the different colour schemes of the marks; (ii) the different lengths of the words ‘fanta’ and ‘fantastika’ and (iii) the semantic differences between them.