Umbro has succeed in its trade mark infringement claim against footwear brand, Dream Pairs, before the Court of Appeal.
Sportswear brand, Umbro, issued proceedings against Dream Pairs on grounds that Dream Pairs’ logo, which features a tilted, square-shaped letter ‘P’ inside of a tilted square, is sufficiently similar to Umbro’s earlier well known double diamond trade mark, which it has utilised in the UK since 1973.
The High Court disagreed with Umbro and ruled that the similarities between Dream Pairs’ logo and Umbro’s trade mark are ‘very faint’ and the claim was dismissed.
In response to that decision, Umbro successfully appealed the judgement at the Court of Appeal (“the CoA”) back in January. The CoA considered that whilst there is a low likelihood of confusion when the marks are compared side-by-side, this is not a sufficient way of assessing post-sale confusion.
The court took account of the fact that consumers encountering the logo in the post-sale context would likely see it affixed to a pair of shoes, and not be looking at it straight on. They determined that, in these circumstances, the Dream Pairs mark would appear increasingly similar to Umbro’s earlier mark and found that there is a likelihood of confusion.
If you have any questions on the above, please do not hesitate to contact the team at McDaniels Law on 0191 281 4000 or legal@mcdanielslaw.com.
