Importance of ‘color’ in POLICOLOR mark

The General Court (Fifth Chamber) has ruled on the conflict between an EU trademark application for POLICOLOR and an earlier trademark PROFICOLOR. Not only does the decision reveal the court’s interpretation of the similarity of conflicting marks when each features distinctive and indistinctive verbal elements, but also the interpretation of the geographic scope of coexistence when it is invoked in administrative proceedings involving EU trademarks.