Third time unlucky for Swatch in CTM cancellation attempt

Luxury watch manufacturer Swatch has failed for a third time to cancel a Community trademark (CTM) for the word ‘Swatchball’ after a European court said the mark is directed at a separate market and will not cause confusion.

The General Court of the European Union ruled in favour of camera manufacturer Panavision on May 19 in its seven-year dispute with Swatch.

The camera company filed for the ‘Swatchball’ CTM in 2007 to be used for electronic publications and retail services. Its application was opposed by Swatch at the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market in September 2008.

Swatch claimed the CTM is “confusingly similar” to its own word mark for ‘Swatch’, which covers watches, and three figurative marks for the word that were registered in 1986, 1994 and 1998.

Although the court accepted that the marks are visually similar to an “average degree” and phonetically similar to a “low or average degree”, it said that the marks were intended for different audiences.

Neither Swatch nor Panavision had responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.