US company fails in bid to register PARIS COLLECTIONS

In Federation des Industries de la Parfumerie v Eurostar Perfumes Inc (Decision 0536, Venezuelan Trademark Gazette 459, Volume VI), the Venezuelan Trademark Office (TO) has refused US-based Eurostar Perfumes' application to register the mark PARIS COLLECTIONS.

Eurostar Perfumes, domiciled in San Antonio, Texas applied to register PARIS COLLECTIONS for goods in Class 3 of the Nice Classification (soaps, perfumery, oils and cosmetics). Federation des Industries de la Parfumerie, an organization that oversees the common interests of a number of French perfume and cosmetics manufacturers, filed an opposition against registration.

The federation stated that Paris is widely known as the source of manufacture of a large number of cosmetic products and perfumes. It claimed that as the application for PARIS COLLECTIONS was filed by a company located or domiciled in the United States, it was likely to falsely suggest to consumers that the products originated from France and, more specifically, Paris.

The TO agreed with the federation's arguments and held that the application should be refused on those grounds. It then examined Article 135 of Andean Community Decision 486 on a Common Intellectual Property Regime and refused registration on this basis as well. Article 135 states that signs may not be registered as trademarks when they are liable to cause confusion in business circles or among the general public as to, among other things, the geographical origin, nature, manufacturing methods, characteristics or qualities of the goods or services concerned. Here, the geographical origin indicated by the mark PARIS COLLECTIONS (ie, Paris) was not the actual source of the goods. Thus, confusion was likely to occur.

Ricardo Fischer, Hoet Pelaez Castillo & Duque, Caracas