L’Oréal hit with a blow after a rejection from Europe

Beauty giant, L’Oréal has not had the best success, as the General Court of the European Union has rejected their application to register a trade mark after the filing of an opposition.

In 2012, Vichy Laboratories who are a subsidiary of L’Oréal cosmetics applied for a European Union trade mark to registered. The mark they submitted was ‘Idéalia’. They stated that they wanted this mark to cover goods and services that included perfumes, shower gels and mousses.

However, a year later, this application hit a road block.

Produtos Farmacêuticos e Nutracêuticos, a Portuguese based laboratory, filed a notice of opposition claiming the proposed mark would infringe their own registered mark, ‘Idealina’. This mark was registered in 2011 to cover laundry, cosmetics and perfumes.

When considering this opposition, the court held in 2014 that there was a likelihood of confusion between the marks which would render the application submitted unable to proceed. They held not only was there a clear link between the proposed goods or services, the two marks were “visually and phonetically similar”.

L’Oréal appealed against this decision and asked the General Court to overrule the previous decision and allow the application to continue.

However, it turns out their arguments were not ‘worth it’ as the General Court affirmed the previous decision and rejected the application. Their justifications mirrored that of the court at first instance stating that the two marks have a clear conceptual similarity.

Therefore, L’Oréal has failed to succeed in their application and cannot gain protection over the mark ‘Idéalia’.

By Ellis Sweetenham