Recently, the General Court confirmed the dismissal of German-based recruitment agency Avanti's trademark application for its name. The company applied for the trademark in 2015 at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). In the figurative trademark, the ‘v’ in the company's name was replaced with a red tick. However, the application was rejected by the EUIPO in March 2016, and an appeal was dismissed in February 2017. The Board of Appeal of the EUIPO declared that because the word ‘avanti’ is common in both Italian and German, it was relevant to consider those that speak the two languages.

The German company argued that the General Court should annul the contested decision and authorise the registration of the trademark. Avanti alleged that the Board of Appeal "did not make an assessment of the mark applied for as the word ‘Avanti’ was not the subject of the application for registration". But the EUIPO said that the characters in the applied for trademark are not distinctive enough and that the slogan would be read as a whole word. The General Court ruled in favour of the EUIPO and dismissed the application. Avanti was ordered to pay costs.

Source: WIPR