In the context of an opposition based on QUICKIES and other deriving QUICK trademarks lodged against the CTM for the Opposition Division recognized a risk of confusion by focussing its analysis exclusively on the earlier trademark QUICKIES. The Board of Appeal and the European Court of First Instance confirmed this position.
The OHIM and CFI made however a strict application of the dominant European case law which generally considers that the verbal element of a word and device trademark is the dominant element.
This approach is here criticisable as it eludes the specific configuration of the CTM concerned, QUICKY being visually and intellectually the name of the drawn rabbit character or being at least evocative of products to be cooked and eaten quickly.
Moreover, the distribution networks of products and services linked to the Quick restaurants are obviously different from those of the QUICKY character’s networks. Lastly, as no consideration was given to the earlier trademarks QUICK, the CFI leave the parties with a doubt which is particularly disturbing for the CTM applicant : in case the applicant decides to nationally convert his CTM, would he run the risk of facing national legal actions from the QUICK restaurants ?
It is now to be expected that European Court of Justice corrects the reasoning of CFI.