Tom Jones appeared for the Claimant and Ashton Chantrielle appeared for the Defendants in this case relating to the validity and infringement of the European trade mark ‘BURGERISTA’.
The Claimant sued for infringement of its trade mark by the Defendants’ use of the sign ‘BURGISTA’ in respect of its chain of burger restaurants in London. The Defendants argued that there was no likelihood of confusion and that the trade mark was descriptive, and therefore invalidly registered.
Though HHJ Hacon agreed that the trade mark contained a recognisable suffix, he found that there was no definition of the work ‘burgerista’ at the time of registration (nor arguably now) and therefore that the Trade Mark was validly registered. The Judge found that the Trade Mark was infringed under Article 9(2)(b) of Regulation 207/2009 (as amended by Regulation 2015/2524) but not Article 9(2)(c).