A business\u2019s name embodies what it builds every day: recognition, reputation and the trust of its customers. When another business uses a similar name for the same services, the consequences for its market presence can be significant.<\/p>\n
In a recent case handled by our firm, we represented a business seeking protection of its trademark and trade name against the use of a similar sign by a competitor.<\/p>\n
One additional word was not enough to distinguish the name<\/strong><\/p>\n The court assessed the prior use of the name, its established recognition in trade, the trademark registration and the similarity of the services provided. In the circumstances of the case, it considered the addition of a single word an immaterial difference that did not prevent a likelihood of confusion.<\/p>\n That confusion could concern both the origin of the services and the mistaken impression that the two businesses were economically or organisationally connected.<\/p>\n Interim protection extending to the business\u2019s online presence<\/strong><\/p>\n Partially granting the application for interim measures, the court ordered the temporary cessation of the use of the disputed sign, including slightly modified versions, to distinguish the services concerned. It also ordered its removal from the electronic media and social media platforms used in the course of trade.<\/p>\n The protection therefore extended to the places where the public encounters a business today: its online advertising and social media presence.<\/p>\n The importance of documentation<\/strong><\/p>\n The case highlights the importance of systematically retaining evidence of the use and recognition of a business name. Its history, advertising material and market presence can be decisive in securing judicial protection.<\/p>\n Our firm\u2019s handling of the case focused on documenting that history and establishing the need for interim protection of our client\u2019s business identity.<\/p>\n This account concerns a ruling on interim measures and presents the case without details identifying the parties.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Protecting a trademark and trade name against a competitor\u2019s use of a similar name. A case from our practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmlawfirm.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmlawfirm.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmlawfirm.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmlawfirm.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmlawfirm.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmlawfirm.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3038,"href":"https:\/\/mmlawfirm.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037\/revisions\/3038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmlawfirm.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmlawfirm.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmlawfirm.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmlawfirm.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}