Chanel secures trademark win at EU court
Luxury brand Chanel has secured a trademark win against a jewellery company at the EU General Court.
Yesterday, July 18, the court held that a lookalike trademark being used by the jewellery company infringed Chanel’s mark (two interlocking ‘C’s).
In March 2010, Li Jing Zhou applied for a trademark featuring two interlocking ‘S’s at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
The mark was then registered under number 1689027-0001, for use on jewellery in connection with his jewellery company, Golden Rose 999.
Chanel brought an application before the Cancellation Division of the EUIPO to invalidate the mark in December 2013.
In July 2014, the Cancellation Division rejected Chanel’s application.
The luxury brand lodged an appeal in September that year, but this was again rejected, this time by the Board of Appeal.
The General Court said (translated from French) of the previous ruling: “It considered, in essence, that the contested design was manifestly not identical with the Chanel monogram, that the differences between the two drawings could not be likened to insignificant details and that, consequently, the contested design was new.”
According to the court, the overall impression of the two drawings is not different, insofar as the outer parts, “which considerably determine the contour and the overall impression produced by the drawings in conflict, are strongly similar and almost identical”.
It added that the designs are both composed of similar oval shapes, with the central part of the disputed design comprising two ellipses similar to the single ellipse in the Chanel mark.
The court annulled the EUIPO’s decision, but it did not declare the contested mark to be null and void (as per Chanel’s request).
The decision can be appealed to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
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