Not even close
But Kappa and K-Shoes — those don’t look alike at all, do they? Who would ever mix those up? Well, an Italian might! Put on your pan-European glasses for a moment, EUIPO seems to suggest. “The word ‘KAPPA’ is the name of the letter ‘K’ in the Italian alphabet”. For the Italian-speaking part of the public, the pronunciation of ‘KAPPA’ and ‘K’ is therefore identical, according to EUIPO.
Kappa-Shoes
Add to that the fact that the word element “shoes” is not distinctive, and you quickly arrive at the conclusion that the marks are aurally and conceptually highly similar, EUIPO says. For Italians, it is therefore not Kappa vs. Kay-Shoes, but Kappa vs. Kappa-Shoes — and that is, of course, quite confusing.
27 countries
It remains tricky with all those European languages. But still, it is correct: if your new mark gives rise to a likelihood of confusion in just one of the EU’s 27 countries, your European registration will be refused. On reflection, maybe a little bell should have rung for me too: the better-known Greek letter K is of course also pronounced as “kappa.”
Trademark search
This case once again underlines the importance of carrying out a proper trademark search before using a mark. If you conduct a comprehensive trademark search, the software used will in principle also pick up this kind of similarity.
Bas Kist
Banner: Mk2010, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
