Case Number: TSI 327/2014
Date of Judgment: 6 November, 2014
The Court of Appeal confirmed the First Instance Court’s decision to cancel the registration of the Trade Name X for being confusable with the notable Trademark Y (previously registered), even though there is no direct affinity between the commercial activity developed by the holder of Trade Name X and the products and services identified by the Trademark Y.
Pursuant to Section 16, paragraphs 2 and 6, of the Commercial Code, the Court firstly decided that the affinity between commercial activities is only one of the relevant considerations for the judgment on the risk of confusion between commercial signs; secondly, that the judgment in respect of the risk of confusion should also take into consideration similar registered trademarks able to mislead in respect of its ownership; thirdly, that the Industrial Property Law, Section 222, paragraph 1, provides for the cancelation of the Trade Names while confusable with any previously registered trademark.
The Court also concluded that the principle of complete novelty also necessarily implies distinction between the commercial signs with different functions in order to prevent any wrong perception of consumers.
http://www.court.gov.mo/sentence/pt-547e98d3110cf.pdf (Portuguese Version)