Judgment of the Supreme Court (First Chamber) no. 107/206 of 1 March 2016 The Spanish Supreme Court (SC) in a judgment of 1 March 2016, dismissed the cassation appeal filed by the “Comité Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne” (joint trade association for Champagne) in respect of registration of the Spanish trademark “Champím” and use of…
The Alicante Appellate Court has confirmed that the use of lists comparing fragrances to well-known perfume brands is illegal. Comparison lists compare smell-alike perfumes with the respective high-priced original perfume brand. These lists are distributed among retailers to inform customers of the “equivalence” between their fragrances and the well-known brand. Lately, retailers have been using…
The CJEU had to decide whether “El Corte Inglés” was confusingly similar to “The English Cut”. It wasn’t – however it might just be similar enough for article 8(5) CTMR (dilution protection) to apply. In its judgment of December 10, 2015 (case C-603/14 P, “El Corte Inglés” v. “The English Cut”), the CJEU overruled the…
This article looks at whether advertisers and referencing service providers, such as Google or Bing, involved in keyword advertising can be held liable in Spain on grounds of trademark infringement on the basis of case-law from the past three years. In short, referencing services in general will not be liable, while advertisers, essentially, have to…
