Puma falls short in EUIPO appeal
Puma has lost an appeal at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) over an Italian technology company’s trademarks.
The German sportswear brand brought the challenge after CMS Italy applied to register its logos, which feature the outline of a big cat, as EU trademarks.
CMS manufactures products including air conditioning units, commercial refrigerators, and heat exchange systems.
Puma claimed the logo would confuse customers into thinking the German company was associated with CMS’ products.
But in a decision issued last week, the EUIPO said Puma and CMS’ trademarks were only “similar to a very low degree”.
The EUIPO’s Fourth Board of Appeal cited visual differences between the marks including CMS’ cat jumping from left to right.
“By contrast, [Puma’s mark] appears to show a rather idealised movement with the tail almost vertically up in the air, the mouth closed and the muscular front paws being clearly discernible,” the decision said.
The EUIPO also concluded that there are no aural or conceptual similarities between the two companies’ marks.
In addition, Puma failed to convince the EUIPO that its trademarks enjoyed a “strong reputation” in the EU, which would have strengthened its case.
It is the latest trademark-related setback for the German company, which earlier this month failed to block Nike from using the term ‘ Footware’.
Nike was given permission to trademark the term for computer hardware, telecommunications, and certain software by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO), rejecting an opposition brought by Puma.
Puma argued that the mark “simply informs consumers that the goods and services in question relate to hardware/software in or for feet and footwear”.
But the IPO said it was “unclear “on what basis ‘Foot’ is descriptive of any of the goods or services”.
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