‘Kicktipp’ trade mark opposition fails

The German based company ‘Kicktipp’ filed an application for a Community Trade Mark to cover clothing.

However, this application was opposed by the fashion company Società Italiana Calzature who stated that it was too similar to their own mark of ‘Kickers’ which was registered for clothing, footwear and headgear products.

The opposition was originally upheld by both the Opposition Division at the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and the Second Board of Appeal.

Kicktipp then appealed to the General Court which posed two issues. The first being that the Italian company provided only a renewal application and not a registration. Therefore, they failed to demonstrate the ‘existence, validity and scope of protection’ of the trade mark.

Its second issue was the decision of OHIM was incorrect.

The general court in their ruling stated that there was not a likelihood of confusion between the two marks therefore no basis for the opposition.

They also agreed that Società Italiana’s “application for renewal cannot be regarded as sufficient to establish the validity of the earlier trademark”.

The court also said the disputed marks have “weak visual similarity, very weak phonetic similarity, and cannot be compared conceptually”.

Therefore, Kicktipp’s mark can be successfully registered.

By Ellis Sweetenham