EU Court annuls a judgment passed in favour of Lindt & Sprüngli by EUIPO

September 21,2018:

European Union General Court passed a decision in favour of German-based Eddy’s Snack Company which had lost in a suit filed at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) against Switzerland-based chocolate manufacturer Lindt & Sprüngli.

In July 2015, Eddy’s Snack Company applied for a trademark ‘Eddy’s Snack Company’ in the classes 29 and 30 related to food and drinks that including chocolate and other confectionery. However, Lindt opposed the trademark application based on their trademarks ‘Teddy’ and ‘Lindt Teddy’ registered under class 30 for chocolate and its related products.

In October 2016, EUIPO’s Opposition Board held that the marks had different meanings and the customers would be able to differentiate Lindt’s mark and the applied-for mark.

But EUIPO’s Fourth Board of Appeal passed its decision in favour of Lindt saying that the marks are phonetically and visually which would confuse the customer while differentiating the two until & unless the customer has above average knowledge of the brands. The board further stated that the marks are not conceptually different; therefore, the public won’t be able to distinguish between the two.

To bring the final decision to the never-ending battle, the General Court concluded that although the word ‘teddy’ denoted stuffed toys bear, EUIPO’s assumption that it can be given a name ‘Eddy’ is pure speculation. It also said that the two marks have low visual and phonetic similarity.

Therefore, the General Court sided with Eddy’s Snack Company’s claim that the board extended the subject matter to class 29, while the opposition only covered class 30. Hence, the General Court ordered EUIPO to pay its own costs as well as those of Eddy’s Snack Company

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