Acceptance of the fact that a famous brand appropriates a less known trademark enjoying earlier priority and beginning to build its position on the market would render the protection of that earlier mark merely illusory.
Acceptance of the fact that a famous brand appropriates a less known trademark enjoying earlier priority and beginning to build its position on the market would render the protection of that earlier mark merely illusory.
According to a judgment of the District Administrative Court (DAC) as of May 13 2011, acceptance of the fact that a famous brand appropriates a less known trademark enjoying earlier priority and beginning to build its position on the market, would render the protection of that earlier mark merely illusory. Such protection, despite having been granted earlier, would not achieve the desired legal effect.
A complaining party—the owner of an earlier trademark, Bikini, registered for ‘cosmetic products’—claimed that a later application for a trademark, Bikini Christian Dior Paris, destined for ‘face and body care products’ (class 03) is similar to the complaining party’s trademark, and the use of the later mark may in particular mislead a part of the public into thinking that there are associations between both trademarks.
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DAC, PPO, cosmetics
