HEALTHCARE
bones and prevention of osteoporosis”, claiming that the junior mark should be rejected for being confusingly similar with the earlier mark. Te case went up to the Board of Appeal which dismissed the opposition and decided to allow the registration procedure of the junior mark.
Te opponent claimed that the dominant part of the earlier mark is ‘osteo aktiv’ whereas the dominant part of the later mark is ‘osteo vitactiv’, alleging that ‘Eurovita’ would be a brand that would not confer distinctive character on the mark. As far as the list of goods is concerned, the opponent claimed that the products are identical, which would lead to confusion.
Te applicant counterclaimed that the junior
mark is part of a family of products named Eurovita, thus the dominant part of the mark is the word ‘Eurovita’, the association of which is to vitamins. Te applicant also claimed that the differences between the signs seen as a whole are sufficient to avoid confusion. In respect to the goods, the applicant claimed that the sale channels are different—in the case of the senior mark the places where food supplements are sold are not subject to the restrictions applicable to the sale of vitamins.
Te board held that there is no risk of confusion between the marks as long as the word elements ‘osteo’ and ‘aktiv’ are frequently used in the names of medicine products, being descriptive, and as long as ‘Eurovita’ is distinctive and already registered as a mark.
When analysing the products, the board was of the opinion that although dietetic substances, vitamins and products based on calcium are similar to food supplements, due to the different chains of distribution, the risk of confusion can be avoided.
With this reasoning, the board considered that there is no risk of confusion and the later mark can proceed to registration.
To conclude, the assessment of the risk of confusion of pharmaceutical trademarks is far from being coherent, as the interpretation of each of the relevant factors is very subjective.
Raluca Vasilescu is a partner and patent and trademark attorney at Cabinet M. Oproiu. She can be contacted at:
raluca@oproiu.ro
LAW FIRM TSIMIKALIS KALONAROU est. 1911
It is tradition that matters
trademarks patents
domain names designs
utility models unfair competition copyright
Raluca Vasilescu’s main areas of practice include patent and trademark matters before
the OSIM, prosecution
of European patents and CTMs. She is a member of FICPI and ECTA’s Anti- Counterfeiting Committee and ECTA Council, and is president of the Romanian Chamber of Patent Attorneys.
NEOFYTOU VAMVA 1 GR-106 74 ATHENS
www.worldipreview.com
Tel: +30 210 36 47 070 Fax: +30 210 36 32 576
E-mail:
info@athenslegal.gr Website:
www.athenslegal.gr
World Intellectual Property Review Annual 2013 53
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