Courts As Brand Managers?

Division 2 of the National Court of Appeals on Federal Civil and Commercial Matters upheld the first instance court's decision that declared that the trademarks "MS MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS" (& design) and "CMS" (& design) are not confusingly similar.

Plaintiff, GMS Management Solutions SL, argued that its trademark "MS MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS" (& design), identified below, was not confusingly similar with the trademark "CMS & design", of Credit Management Solutions S.A.

Plaintiff's trademark consists of the letters "M" and "S" together with a circle design which appears next to the "MS" letter combination. The judge of first instance understood that the circle design, as shown above, should stand for the letter "O", and therefore, plaintiff's trademark should be identified as "MSO MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS", for the purposes of analysis.