On May 27, 2008, the Poitiers Court of Appeal denied similarity between BIOLANE and BIOLEA both for cosmetics. The Court has truly admitted the generic character of the prefix “bio” to compare only the respective suffixes “lane” and “léa”.
This approach brought to consider that the syllable “lane” which is composed of only one sound was not phonetically similar to the syllable “léa” which is composed of two sounds “lé” and “a” so that no likelihood of confusion was retained.
The claims of unfair competition and parasitism were also rejected as the owner of the prior trademark BIOLANE only raised the same facts than those based on infringement (use of a similar name and use of similar colours). The BIOLEA cosmetics presented a distinct packaging which did not reproduce the features of the packaging of the BIOLANE products what additionally conducted to the rejection of the claim”.