While confirming a likelihood of confusion between the marks SEROSLIM and SEROSTIM, the General Court issued on September 28, 2010, an interesting decision on two points.
With regards to the relevant public, the General Court said that, while the medium consumer has a higher degree of care when dealing with pharmaceutical products, he does not have the same level of information than health professionals. As a result, this part of the public is not in a position to note possible slight differences which are based on a chemical nomenclature.
With regards to the comparison of the signs, the General Court then denied that a conceptual approach, where ‘SERO’ would be associated to blood serum bringing the public to focus on the difference between ‘SLIM’ and ‘STIM’, could counter balance the visual and phonetic similarity existing between the marks.