The European Court of First Instance denied the risk of confusion between the word marks ECHINACIN and ECHINAID for nutritional supplements in class 5.
The decision states that consumers who are interested by such products pay more attention to them and are therefore supposed to have a higher degree of information and attention. As a consequence, consumers can,(enlever la virgule) understand that the prefix echina, which is a Latin name usually designating the components of products, refers to its medicinal plants and not to a commercial origin.
The day after, the Opposition Division retained a risk of confusion between PREVENTOX and PREVENTEX, covering respectively specific pharmaceutical products with different therapic purpose insofar as such products are (only) manufactured by the same undertakings and distributed through the same channels.
As a result, the risk of confusion depends on specification of goods in class 5: if the products have a medical feature or purpose, higher are the chances that the risk of confusion is retained.