General Court (Sixth Chamber) 26 June 2014, T‑372/11 (Basic AG Lebensmittelhandel v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM).)

Also known as

The General Court dismissed an action brought by Basic AG Lebensmittelhandel against a Board of Appeal decision that found a likelihood of confusion under Article 8(1)(b) of Regulation No 207/2009 between the figurative mark 'basic' and the earlier mark 'BASIC'. The Court held that retail and wholesale services in Class 35 are similar to distribution services in Class 39 when the underlying goods are identical or highly similar, as they share the same ultimate objective of bringing products to the end consumer. Furthermore, the Court affirmed that the relevant public for both service categories consists of professionals, and the phonetic and conceptual identity of the signs outweighed their low visual similarity.AI