Look-alike and Smell-alike: protection granted in UK?
According to an important UK High Court decision, a famous
company manufacturer of high quality perfumes and other beauty
products complained that the defendants, a Belgian company imported,
marketed and distributed a range of perfumes in the UK, which
were both smell-alikes and look-alikes of some of its products.
The case law could represent an important precedent to find out
an interesting solution in order to protect 3-D or smell trademarks
and to enforce the possibilities for the owners of distinctive
signs to act against such very common kinds of unfair competition.
Actually, the decision statues that:
it is not necessary to prove confusion to establish infringement
by the trademark owner and
the use of comparison lists and the deliberate mimicking of the
products of the company aggrieved weakened the defendants position.
It might be supposed that if the defendants had not been so obvious
in their motives that infringement may not have been found.
For the brand owners, it would appear that there is now a concrete
benefit from registering the packaging of product as a whole,
as well as word marks.
The case would appear to make it easier for brand owners to prevent
look-alikes.
Barzanò & Zanardo remain at your disposal in order
to provide you more information about the matter. Please do not
hesitate to contact us to apply for a 3-D trademark or to know
how your distinctive signs could be protected against unfair competition.
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