General Court Takes 'Cosmopolitan' View On Confusing Similarity

In Hearst Communications Inc v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM), the General Court has upheld a decision of the Board of Appeal of OHIM in which the latter had found that there was nolikelihood of confusion between the word mark COSMOBELLEZA and the earlier COSMOPOLITAN marks.

The recent decision of the court is the final decision in a long-running legal battle between the well-known media and publication company Hearst Communications Inc and OHIM. In November 2004 Hearst filed an opposition against the application for the word mark COSMOBELLEZA in Classes 35 and 41 of the Nice Classification for the organisation of exhibitions. The opposition was brought on the basis of Hearst's earlier national trademarks, international marks and non-registered marks COSMOPOLITAN, COSMO TEST, COSMO, COSMOPOLITAN TELEVISION and THE COSMOPOLITAN SHOW for goods and services in Classes 16, 25, 38, 39 and 41 with effect in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany,