Fabio Adinolfi comments on ECJ judg­ment T-423/21 on the question of like­lihood of confu­sion between two trade marks registered for fish products in GRUR-Prax

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In issue 9/2023 of “GRUR-Prax – Gewerblicher Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht, Praxis im Immaterialgüter- und Wettbewerbsrecht” BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT attorney at law Fabio Adinolfi discusses the ECJ judgment T-423/21 of 14.09.2022 on the likelihood of confusion of word/figurative marks.

In this judgment, the court follows the decisions of the lower instances and confirms the likelihood of confusion of two trademarks registered for fish products. A stylized fish as the dominant image in the younger mark was not found to be distinctive.

Attorney at law Fabio Adinolfi welcomes the ECJ ruling, as it puts a stop to the popular strategy of adding a figurative element to word marks in order to prevent a possible likelihood of confusion with third-party marks.

According to Fabio Adinolfi, figurative elements are only distinctive and suitable for avoiding collisions if they have no relation to the own goods and services sought.

Read the complete discussion of the ECJ judgment by Fabio Adinolfi in german language in the issue 09/2023 of GRUR-Praxis! Registered users of Beck-Online can download it here.