No confusion between HONDA LOGO and LOGO trademarks

The Athens Administrative Court of Appeals has affirmed the decision of the Athens Court of First Instance rejecting the opposition by Greek company Logo AE against the application filed by Japanese company Honda Kigen Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha for the registration of the trademark HONDA LOGO (Case 307/2005, Decision 3935/2006, July 23 2007).

On May 18 1998 Honda applied for the registration of the trademark HONDA LOGO (Registration 136922) for motor vehicles and related goods in Class 12 of the Nice Classification.

Logo opposed the registration on the grounds that the trademark HONDA LOGO, which includes the exact name and trademarks of Logo, was filed in bad faith. It alleged that the addition of the name Honda was insufficient to avoid confusion.

The court took special note of the fact that the trademark at issue consisted of two words. However, it determined that the dominant part of the trademark HONDA LOGO was the name Honda, which in itself was sufficiently distinctive.

This finding, in conjunction with the fact that Logo is not active in the motor vehicles industry, was sufficient to determine that the registration of the trademark HONDA LOGO for goods in Class 12 is not likely to cause confusion among the public.

Eleni Lappa, Dr Helen G Papaconstantinou John V Filias & Associates, Athens