On February 24, 2006, the Paris Court of Appeal considered that clothing should be regarded as similar with school supplies (stationary).
For the Judge, whereas the nature, function and distribution networks of these products are not identical, the consumer will consider that they have the same origin because of the tendency of some clothing companies to sell also school supplies.
This position is a further step of the overextension of clothing similarity. The French Courts clearly adopt a specific reasoning when clothing products are involved by basing their analysis on the diversification criterion.
A specific study written by INLEX on clothing similarity, involving this similarity case amongst others, is published in the September issue of Managing Intellectual Property. (http://www.managing.com/)