“Final Fantasy” producer prevailed over two parasite trademarks in the UK

The Final Fantasy’s producer, the Japanese video game company Square Enix, won two invalidation disputes against trademarks Parasite Eve и Parasite.

Both marks have been registered in the UK by Michael Gleissner, a person notoriously known for cases of bad faith registered trademarks in the EU.

According to the Square Enix, its unregistered trademark Parasite Eve has been in use for video games in the UK since 1998. Because of that, it has built a strong reputation amongst the consumers in the country. In light of this, the above mentioned two trademarks are confusingly similar and can damage the reputation of the earlier mark.

The UKIPO agreed with the Japanese company considering the later two trademarks as confusingly similar and registered in bad faith with the purpose to take advantage of the earlier trademark established reputation.

Source: WIPR.