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Articoli Correlati: EU trade mark

On 26 June 2018, in case T 71/17, the General Court of the European Union conformed that France.com sign cannot be registered as an EU trade mark. As regards the visual comparison of the signs, the Court took the view, contrary to that of EUIPO, that, given the differences between their features and the general way in which they are set out visually, the signs at issue, considered as a whole, are only slightly visually similar. From a phonetic standpoint, the Court confirmed that the signs at issue are almost identical, because it can be assumed that many consumers will refer to the sign of France.com by the word ‘France’ alone, the abbreviation ‘.com’ being perceived as referring to a website. Finally, the Court found that the signs at issue are conceptually similar, as they convey the same concept (namely France, the Eiffel tower and the colours of the French flag), the presence of the word element ‘.com’ in the sign of France.com having no bearing on whether the signs are conceptually the same. In the light of the fact that the signs at issue cover identical or similar services and have a particularly high degree of phonetic and conceptual similarity, the Court found that there is a likelihood of confusion and that France is entitled to oppose registration of the sign france.com.