In Judgment T-98/09, the General Court rejected the appeal brought by TUBESCA, on the basis of its French verbal mark TUBESCA, and international figurative , against CTM application TUMESA
The relevant public consists of highly specialized consumers in construction material, with a high degree of attention, from Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Portugal.
The Board of Appeal has rightly found a low degree of similarity between the goods and services in question since the earlier goods , such as scaffolding systems, must respect specific norms, and their use and producers differ from the contested goods in Class 6 such as metal goods. The same reasoning applies to the contested services regarding construction material, in Classes 35 and 42 which will not be rendered by the same companies as the ones producing ladders and scaffolds.
The trademarks have a low degree of similarity visually and phonetically, the word element ‘TUMESA’ in the contested CTM being the dominant element, even if the words ‘tubos del mediterraneo, S.A’ are understandable by part of the relevant public, the signs are still not similar conceptually.
Given the high degree of attention by the relevant consumers, the principle of interdependence and the low degree of similarity between the signs and the goods in question, there can be no risk of confusion between the trademarks at issue.
