EU Court dismisses Sony’s ‘Gran Turismo’ TM challenge

The EU General Court has dismissed Sony Interactive Entertainment’s challenge to an EU trademark application for “GT Racing”, which Sony argued could be confused with its racing game franchise “Gran Turismo”.

In a judgment handed down on Wednesday, 1 September, judge Maria Costeira ruled that the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) did not err in its earlier decision to reject all of Sony’s opposition arguments.

The “GT Racing” application was submitted by Wai Leong Wong for Class 18 of the Nice Agreement, which covers “leather and imitations of leather and goods”.

The videogame giant argued that the application could be confused with its well-known racing game series, which debuted in 1997 and has seen six mainline instalments. The seventh game in the series is in development and expected to launch in 2022.

Sony claimed that Wong’s mark application could be confused with, or take advantage of 14 different marks related to the “Gran Turismo” brand. However, it limited the majority of its arguments to its EU figurative mark of the Gran Turismo logo, which is a heavily stylised “GT”.