Our partner Elisabetta Berti Arnoaldi Veli writes for Spot and Web on the legal dispute now before the EUIPO, following the opposition filed by the owner of the earlier trademark “Nazione Futura” – the Italian conservative think tank founded by Francesco Giubilei – against the trademark application for “Futuro Nazionale”, the new political movement launched by Roberto Vannacci.
In her analysis, she revisits the well-established principles on the likelihood of confusion between distinctive signs, drawing on CJEU case law (from SABEL and Canon to Lloyd Schuhfabrik Meyer) and recalling that the assessment of confusability is never limited to a literal comparison: it requires an overall evaluation of the visual, phonetic and conceptual similarity between the signs, as perceived by the relevant public.