IEPT20111020, ECJ, PepsiCo & Grupo v OHIM

10-12-2011 Print this page
IEPT20111020

DESIGN LAW

 

Design law: informed user
• It should be noted, first, that Regulation No 6/2002 does not define the concept of the ‘informed user’. However, as the Advocate General correctly observed in points 43 and 44 of his Opinion, that concept must be understood as lying somewhere between that of the average consumer, applicable in trade mark matters, who need not have any specific knowledge and who, as a rule, makes no direct comparison between the trade marks in conflict, and the sectoral expert, who is an expert with detailed technical expertise. Thus, the concept of the informed user may be understood as referring, not to a user of average attention, but to a particularly observant one, either because of his personal experience or his extensive knowledge of the sector in question.

 

Informed user: from a five year old to a marketing Director
• It must be held that it is indeed that intermediate formulation that was adopted by the General Court in paragraph 62 of the judgment under appeal. This is, moreover, illustrated by the conclusion drawn from that formulation by the General Court in paragraph 64 of the judgment under appeal, in identifying the informed user relevant in the present case as capable of being a child in the approximate age range of 5 to 10 or a marketing manager in a company that makes goods which are promoted by giving away ‘pogs’, ‘rappers’ or ‘tazos’.

 

When possible a direct comparison, but can be impracticable and may be indirect
• Second, as the Advocate General observed in points 51 and 52 of his Opinion, it is true that the very nature of the informed user as defined above means that, when possible, he will make a direct comparison between the designs at issue. However, it cannot be ruled out that such a comparison may be impracticable or uncommon in the sector concerned, in particular because of specific circumstances or the characteristics of the devices which the designs at issue represent.
• its reasoning on an indirect method of comparison based on an imperfect recollection, it does not reveal any error on the General Court’s part.

 

Overall impression: account can be taken of goods as actually marketed
• However, since in design matters the person making the comparison is an informed user who – as noted in paragraphs 53 and 59 above – is different from the ordinary average consumer, it is not mistaken, in the assessment of the overall impression of the designs at issue, to take account of the goods actually marketed which correspond to those designs.

 

IEPT20111020, ECJ, PepsiCo & Grupo v OHIM