The concept of similarity lies at the heart of trade mark
law - most trade mark cases involve a determination of whether
one trade mark is confusingly similar to another. But similarity
comes up in another context too: the similarity of goods. On
13 June 2012, Judge Dennis Davis of the Western Cape High Court
handed down an interesting judgment on this issue.
The facts were simple enough: a wine producer, who exported a
wine to Germany under the name Zonquasdrift, had a South
African trade mark registration for this mark covering alcoholic
beverages (class 33 of the classification). A neighbouring farmer,
on the other hand, used the almost identical name, Zonquasdrif
Vineyards, in relation to wine grapes that it sold to co-op
cellars. Hence the wine producer went to court and applied for an
order preventing the grape farmer from using the name. The case was
brought under section 34 (1) (b) of the Trade Marks Act, which says
that the owner of a trade mark registration
