Jonathan Hill recently acted for the Polo/Lauren Company, LP, the owner of the well known Ralph Lauren “Polo” brand, the applicant in proceedings before the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union challenging OHIM’s rejection of its opposition to the registration of a logo featuring a player of bicycle polo wielding a polo mallet. Polo/Lauren contended that the logo was a parody of its well-known polo player logo.
The General Court upheld the challenge, holding that OHIM’s Second Board of Appeal had been wrong to dismiss the opposition on the grounds that the mark applied for was not similar to the earlier trade marks relied upon. It found that there was some visual and, particularly, conceptual similarity between the logos, and the effect of these similarities outweighed the differences present such that it could not be said that there was no similarity between the marks at issue.
Jonathan Hill was instructed by King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin.