Decision of the Sofia City Court under Art. 50 of the LMGI in relation to Art. 33 – 34 of the LTMIS /repealed/
THE COURT ACCEPTS THAT BY USING A SPECIFIC COMBINATIONS OF COLOURS WITH REGARD TO ITS BUSINESS ACTIVITY A FIRM HAS ESTABLISHED A SIGNIFICANT IMPORTANCE OF THE SAME WITH REGARD TO THE OVERALL DISTINCTIVENESS OF ITS MARKS.
The Law Office of Bojinov & Bojinov represents a well-known company with regard to the protection of its trademark rights for the territory of Bulgaria.
A proceeding under Art. 50 of the LMGI has been initiated with reference to an appeal filed by the company against the administrative Decision № 47/ 05.03.2004 of the Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria, which rejected a request for cancellation of a registration for a combined mark containing yellow and green colors, with regard to goods in class 4: „fuels, oil products and lubricants”. The Appellant’s request for cancellation of the attacked mark is based on the rights over similar earlier combined marks, registered for identical goods and identical colour combinations. In the decision subject to appeal, it has been found that the attacked mark and the cited earlier marks create a different overall impression and have no phonetic and visual similarity to an extent that would lead to the confusion of the consumer.
The Court has accepted the conclusion of the trademark expertise, according to which the firm offering goods in class 4 has established an individual combination of colours, which is a distinctive feature distinguishing its goods from those of the competitors on the market, and contributing to the overall distinctiveness of the marks.
In view of the foregoing, the Court has found that the decision of the Patent Office should be overruled since it was issued due to an inaccurate application of the substantive law, and the case was returned to the administrative body for review.
