Salospir v Aspirin: The General Court of the EU Confirms That Bayer Cannot Block the Registration of a Competitor’s Trademark

The General Court of the EU has confirmed a previous decision of the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) rejecting an opposition against the registration of a composite EU trademark for a drug filed by a proprietor of earlier signs. The later mark was composed by a combination of word and figurative elements. Concurring with the EUIPO, the Court identified in the word element the distinctive dominant element of the later sought mark and ruled that the conflicting marks were not confusingly similar in spite of the common figurative elements they had in common. These figurative elements, indeed, constituted a common feature in the pharmaceutical sector.