L’Oréal not worth it as EU court rejects trademark claim

Cosmetics brand L’Oréal has been dealt a blow after an EU court rejected its trademark application that had been opposed by a Portuguese company.

According to the General Court, there is a likelihood of confusion between L’Oréal’s figurative sign for the word ‘Idéalia’ and the word mark ‘Idealina’.

L’Oréal subsidiary Vichy Laboratories applied for a European Union trademark (EUTM) for ‘Idéalia’ in 2012 at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The mark was intended to cover goods and services including perfumes, shower gels and mousses.

In 2013, Portugal-based Theralab—Produtos Farmacêuticos e Nutracêuticos filed a notice of opposition, citing its EUTM for the word mark ‘Idealina’. The EUTM, granted in 2011, covers goods and services including substances for laundry use and perfumes and cosmetics.

In a decision handed down in February 2014, the Opposition Division at the EUIPO said there was a likelihood of confusion and accepted the opposition.

L’Oréal appealed against the ruling but the EUIPO’s Board of Appeal dismissed the appeal earlier this year.

The board said the goods covered by L’Oréal’s applied-for mark were identical to the goods covered by Theralab’s earlier mark and added that there was a likelihood of confusion taking into account the “visual and phonetic similarity between the marks” and the identity of the goods covered.

L’Oréal then took the case to the General Court calling on it to annul the Opposition Division’s decision, accept its EUTM application, and order the EUIPO to pay costs.

But in a ruling handed down on April 28, the court rejected L’Oréal’s claims.

The court said the two marks “have a clear conceptual content, at least for the English-speaking public, in so far as they allude … to the notions of ideal and idealism respectively”.

It added: “It should be noted that, as found by the Opposition Division and upheld by the Board of Appeal, the goods covered by the mark applied for are included amongst the cleaning preparations, perfumes, essential oils and cosmetics covered by the earlier mark. The applicant shares this assessment at paragraph 13 of the application by stating that the goods covered by the marks at issue are identical.”

L’Oréal has been ordered to pay costs.