Judgment of the General Court of 7 December 2011 - El Corte Inglés v OHIM - Azzedine Alaïa (ALIA)

(Case T-152/10) 

(Community trade mark - Opposition proceedings - Application for the Community word mark ALIA - Earlier Community figurative mark ALAÏA PARIS - Relative ground for refusal - Likelihood of confusion - Article 8(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 207/2009)

Language of the case: Spanish

Parties

Applicant: El Corte Inglés, SA (Madrid, Spain) (represented by: J.L. Rivas Zurdo, M.E. López Camba and E. Seijo Veiguela, lawyers)

Defendant: Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (represented by: R. Pethke, Agent)

Other party to the proceedings before the Board of Appeal of OHIM, intervener before the General Court: Azzedine Alaïa (Paris, France) (represented by: M. Holah, lawyer)

Re:

Action brought against the decision of the Fourth Board of Appeal of OHIM of 3 February 2010 (Case R 924/2008-4), relating to opposition proceedings between Mr Azzedine Alaïa and El Corte Inglés, SA.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

1.    Annuls the decision of the Fourth Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM) of 3 February 2010 (Case R 924/2008-4) in so far as the Board of Appeal excluded the goods in Class 3 corresponding to the description 'Perfumery, essential oils, cosmetics, hair lotions; dentifrices' from its analysis of the likelihood of confusion between the marks at issue.

2.    Dismisses the action as to the remainder.

3.    Orders El Corte Inglés, SA, OHIM and Mr Azzedine Alaïa each to bear their own costs.

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¹ - OJ C 148, 5. 6. 2010.