The Market Court: FINKA (Figure) Is Confusable with FINKA for Vodka

The Market Court issued a trademark decision 432/16 on 8 July 2016. The court ruled that the applied national trademark FINKA (figure) is confusable with the earlier European Union trademark FINKA. Both marks are registered in class 33.

Background

Sai­maa Be­ve­ra­ges Oy Ltd (Saimaa) applied to register a figure mark FINKA in class 33 for vodka on 20 August 2014.

Application no. T201451621.

The Patent and Registration Office (PRH) denied the registration (decision 8 April 2015) because the mark is liable to be confused with an earlier European Union trademark (EUTM) registration FINKA (no. 004750634), registered on 13 October 2006. The EUTM FINKA is registered in class 33 for al­co­ho­lic be­ve­ra­ges, in par­ti­cu­lar vod­ka.

Saimaa filed an appeal to the Market Court against the PRH's decision.

The Market Court issued its decision 432/16 on 8 July 2016.

The Market Court

According to section 14 paragraph 1 sub-paragraph 9 of the Finnish Trademarks Act (7/1964), a trademark shall not be registered if it is liable to be confused with a European Union trademark within the meaning of section 57 that has been registered on the basis of an earlier application.

According to section 6 paragraph 1 of the Act, trade symbols shall be regarded under this Act as liable to cause confusion only if they apply to goods of identical or similar type.

The court referred to the established case-law and stated the following: 

There is a likelihood of confusion where the public can be mistaken as to the origin of the goods or services in question.

Accordingly, the risk that the public might believe that the goods or services in question come from the same undertaking or, as the case may be, from economically-linked undertakings, constitutes a likelihood of confusion.

The likelihood of confusion must be appreciated globally, taking into account all factors relevant to the circumstances of the case.

In assessing the similarity of the goods or services concerned, all the relevant factors relating to those goods or services themselves should be taken into account. Those factors include, inter alia, their nature, their intended purpose and their method of use and whether they are in competition with each other or are complementary. The comparison of the goods or services should also focus on their distribution channels and their usual origin.

The global appreciation of the visual, aural or conceptual similarity of the marks in question, must be based on the overall impression given by the marks, bearing in mind, in particular, their distinctive and dominant components.

The more similar the goods or services covered and the more distinctive the earlier mark, the greater will be the likelihood of confusion.

The applied mark FINKA (figure) covers the following goods in the class 33: vodka. The earlier EUTM FINKA is registered in class 33 for al­co­ho­lic be­ve­ra­ges, in par­ti­cu­lar vod­ka.

These goods are consequently considered identical.

The court stated that the average Finnish consumer of the category of goods concerned is deemed to be reasonably observant.

The applied mark FINKA is a figure mark and it is written in capital letters. The mark has a rather usual font. The letter A is stylized. 

The earlier EUTM FINKA is a word mark that consists of a word "FINKA". Neither of the parties argued that the word "FINKA" would have any generally known meanings regarding the goods in question. Therefore, the EUTM FINKA has a normal distinctiveness for the goods.

The conflicting marks have a very high degree of visual similarity, despite the stylized letter A in the applied mark. Furthermore, the marks are aurally identical. The conceptual similarity cannot be compared since the word "FINKA" does not have a clear meaning among the relevant public.

The court stated that the conflicting marks have identical goods. Furthermore, the marks have a very high degree of similarity. The court concluded that the applied mark FINKA (figure) is confusable with the mark FINKA.  

The action was dismissed.