Dr. Florian Schwab in WTR Daily on case T-157/24

In the online magazine “World Trademark Review Daily”, BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT partner and attorney at law Dr. Florian Schwab comments on a recent decision of the General Court of the European Union (Case T-157/24), in which the Luxembourg court confirms the absence of a likelihood of confusion between the EU word mark application CHIPSY KINGS and Meica’s opposition mark in the form of the word mark CURRY KING.

In its decision of December 11, 2024 in Meica Ammerländische Fleischwarenfabrik Fritz Meinen GmbH & Co. KG v EUIPO (case T-157/24), the General Court of the European Union, following the decision of the Board of Appeal, found that there was no likelihood of confusion between the EU trademark application CHIPSY KINGS and the earlier EU-part of the International Registration of the word mark CURRY KING.
Both trademarks had identically or similarly claimed, inter alia, “meat, vegetarian and potato products and retail food services”. However, the overall impression of the two composite marks was sufficiently different.
In particular, the common component KING(S) was considered to be laudatory and, therefore, of weak distinctiveness. CURRY was also understood as descriptive of Indian food or of the spice.
In the case of the younger trademark, the component CHIPS was considered either also being descriptive (“chipsy”) or, on the contrary, fanciful and, in this case, more distinctive – and thus less likely to cause confusion – compared to the (common) element KING(S).

The article by Dr. Schwab entitled “General Court confirms lack of likelihood of confusion between CHIPSY KINGS and CURRY KING” was published on January 7, 2025 and is available online for registered users of WTR Daily here.