Judgment of the General Court of 6 June 2013 – McNeil v OHIM – Alkalon (NICORONO)

(Case T-580/11) ¹

(Community trade mark – Opposition proceedings – Application for the Community word mark NICORONO – Earlier Community word mark NICORETTE – Relative ground for refusal – Likelihood of confusion – Similarity of the signs – Article 8(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 207/2009)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicant: McNeil AB (Helsingborg, Sweden) (represented by: I. Starr, Solicitor, and G. Tritton, Barrister)

Defendant: Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (represented by: A. Folliard-Monguiral, acting as Agent)

Other party to the proceedings before the Board of Appeal of OHIM: Alkalon ApS (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Re:

Action brought against the decision of the Second Board of Appeal of OHIM of 3 August 2011 (Case R 1582/2010-2), relating to opposition proceedings between McNeil AB and Alkalon ApS.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

1.    Annuls the decision of the Second Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM) of 3 August 2011 (Case R 1582/2010-2);

2.    Orders OHIM to pay the costs.

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¹     OJ C 25, 28.1.2012.