EUROPEAN UNION: General Court Confirms Likelihood of Confusion Between GEICAR and HEY CAR SELECT

The General Court (GC) has upheld the decision of the Board of Appeal (BoA) that there was a likelihood of confusion between the sign and mark shown below (T-338/24).

The applicant, Mobility Trader Holding GmbH, designated the European Union for its International Registration no. 1 547 231 for the sign shown below:

Gestion en Intermediacion Cala and Ruiz SL opposed the application under Article 8(1)(b) of Regulation 2017/1001 on the basis of the earlier Spanish mark no. M3601033 shown below:

The applicant disputed the BoA’s finding of similarity at least to a low degree of the following services covered by GEICAR and HEY CAR SELECT, respectively:

1. Retail services for vehicles and the provision of online marketplaces for vehicles both in Class 35;
2. Services provided by a franchisor and some business support services both in Class 35;
3. Retail services for vehicles in Class 35 and rental services for vehicles in Class 39.

The GC upheld the finding of similarity because:

1. The relevant public could acquire vehicles in an equivalent manner both via a retailer’s website or an online marketplace, and the services were interdependent;
2. Support provided by a franchisor to a franchisee on business operation and management would be very wide ranging;
3. Rental services included long-term rental, often with a purchase option, and it was common for the same company to offer sales and rentals of vehicles.

The BoA correctly found GEICAR and HEY CAR SELECT phonetically similar to a high degree.

The Spanish public would pronounce “hey” similarly to the sound “gei.” According to the Royal Spanish Academy’s Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (Pan-Hispanic dictionary), the “h” in “hey” would be pronounced as an aspirated sound. Further, the pronunciation by that public of an “h” placed at the beginning of an English word and followed by a vowel was very close to the pronunciation “g” in the Spanish language as if it were followed by an “e” or an “i.”

Further, “hey,” “car,” and “select” would be pronounced in a single flow since they were separated only by spaces and not punctuation. This meant that the pronunciation of the first two syllables of the sign (“hey” and “car”) and of the mark (“gei” and “car”), was virtually identical. SELECT in the sign was less important due to its weak distinctive character, and the words under GEICAR—“vehículos seminuevos y de ocasión”—would not be pronounced.

Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of this article, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest. Law & Practice updates are published without comment from INTA except where it has taken an official position.

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