Similar European trademarks and similar and dissimilar services

The General Court ruled in Case T-683/13 which concerns an attempt for registration of an EU trademark EUROMAKER for classes 38 and 42.

Against this mark an opposition was filed based on an earlier mark EURIMARK for classes 35, 41, 42 and 45.

EUIPO upheld this opposition. The relevant public is consists of professionals and at the same time the specified services are similar. Visually and phonetically both marks are similar and despite the low distinctive character of the earlier mark, this could not overcome both kind of similarities.

The Court upheld this decision but not entirely. According to the court there is clear similarity between  “Creating and database administration …” and “Design and development of computer hardware and software …” in the earlier mark. On the other hand, however, the court rejected the existence of a similarity between ‘Providing access to database servers … “and” design and development of computer hardware and software … “due to the fact that these services are of a different type, have different purpose and are aimed at different consumers.

Source: Alicante news.

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