Court of Justice ruled on the likelihood of confusion between the HALLOUMI and BBQLOUMI signs

The proprietor of the HALLOUMI trademark filed an opposition against the registration of a figurative sign containing the word element „BBQLOUMI“ as an EU trademark, which the Bulgarian company MJ Dairies EOOD had applied for in order to distinguish, among other things, its cheese products.

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), responsible for examining applications for EU trademarks, rejected these oppositions, mainly on the ground that there was no likelihood of confusion between the figurative sign „BBQLOUMI“ and the HALLOUMI collective trademark from the perspective of average consumers.

The first action, which the foundation brought against the EUIPO decision before the Court of Justice of the EU, was dismissed, and the court held that where a trademark consists solely of the term „halloumi“, which designates a specific type of cheese, that mark has weak distinctive character and therefore a likelihood of confusion cannot be confirmed at all.

The foundation appealed against the decision, and in the appeal proceedings the court held that the weak distinctive character of the earlier trademark does not rule out a likelihood of confusion. The General Court therefore had to rule again in the referred case, but this time it had to focus on whether the two signs can genuinely be confused, without its initial presumption that there was no likelihood of confusion whatsoever.

After examining the extent to which an average consumer may confuse the two signs, however, the court concluded that the likelihood of confusion is low. In this decision it relied on the actual features of the sign, for example on the fact that the identical part „loumi“ is not dominant in the sign, and even if a consumer focused on it, it would evoke the well-known halloumi type of cheese rather than the foundation's trademark.

Source: General Court of the European Union, PRESS RELEASE