Case T-194/09

Lan Airlines, SA

v

Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM)

(Community trade mark – Opposition proceedings – Application for Community word mark LINEAS AEREAS DEL MEDITERRANEO LAM – Earlier Community word and figurative marks LAN – Relative ground for refusal – No likelihood of confusion – No similarity between the signs – Article 8(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 40/94 (now Article 8(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 207/2009))

Summary of the Judgment

Community trade mark – Definition and acquisition of the Community trade mark – Relative grounds for refusal – Opposition by the proprietor of an earlier identical or similar mark registered for identical or similar goods or services – Likelihood of confusion with the earlier mark

(Council Regulation No 40/94, Art. 8(1)(b))

There is no likelihood of confusion on the part of the average European consumer between, on the one hand, the word sign LINEAS AEREAS DEL MEDITERRANEO LAM, registration of which as a Community trade mark is applied for in respect of ‘Transport; packaging and storage of goods; travel arrangement’ in Class 39 of the Nice Agreement, and, on the other hand, the word and figurative marks LAN, registered earlier as Community trade marks in respect of services including those covered by the mark applied for.

The signs at issue, assessed overall, are different, in view, first, of their visual and phonetic differences and, second, either of their conceptual difference for that section of the relevant public which is Spanish-speaking, or of their lack of meaning for that section of the relevant public which is not Spanish-speaking.

The lack of similarity between the signs at issue cannot be offset, in the global assessment of the likelihood of confusion, by the fact that the designated services are identical.

(see paras 23-24, 44, 47)