On May 16, 2014 the Court of Florence was called to decide on the likelihood of confusion between trademarks through the use of a “redirect” to another website.
In recalling the decisions of the Supreme Court according to which the judgment of confusion must be conducted less severely in the case of a comparison of weak trademarks, the Court decided that the registration of a sign as a domain name does not necessarily
determine an infringement when such trademark is used to redirect a trademark.
By its decision, the Court has rejected the plaintiff’s request for a injunctive relief for the refrain from using the sign "Alert System even in the variants "People Alert System " and “PAS” as well prohibiting the use of the domain name "Peoplealertsystem.net" and the adoption of other precautions to protect their trademarks.
Plaintiff claimed to be a company operating in the management of communication systems and which marketed a product called under the registered trademark “Alert System”, i.e. a real time message alert system that allows the public authorities or other persons inform at the same time in a very short lapse a certain number of people.
Plaintiff argued the likeliness of confusion of defendant’s domain name “PeopleAlertSystem.net” (PAS) with the registered trademark “Alert System” when visitors were redirected to defendant’s website.
According to the Court of Florence, the trademarks “People Alert System” and “Alert System” - can peacefully co-exist because the trademark “Alert System” is intrinsically weak to distinguish the services covered by the trademark.
The Florence Court therefore dismissed the request for an injunctive relief because the appellant did not prove to be the holder of a strong trademark.
In recalling the decisions of the Supreme Court according to which the judgment of confusion must be conducted less severely in the case of a comparison of weak trademarks, the Court decided that the registration of a sign as a domain name does not necessarily
determine an infringement when such trademark is used to redirect a trademark.
By its decision, the Court has rejected the plaintiff’s request for a injunctive relief for the refrain from using the sign "Alert System even in the variants "People Alert System " and “PAS” as well prohibiting the use of the domain name "Peoplealertsystem.net" and the adoption of other precautions to protect their trademarks.
Plaintiff claimed to be a company operating in the management of communication systems and which marketed a product called under the registered trademark “Alert System”, i.e. a real time message alert system that allows the public authorities or other persons inform at the same time in a very short lapse a certain number of people.
Plaintiff argued the likeliness of confusion of defendant’s domain name “PeopleAlertSystem.net” (PAS) with the registered trademark “Alert System” when visitors were redirected to defendant’s website.
According to the Court of Florence, the trademarks “People Alert System” and “Alert System” - can peacefully co-exist because the trademark “Alert System” is intrinsically weak to distinguish the services covered by the trademark.
The Florence Court therefore dismissed the request for an injunctive relief because the appellant did not prove to be the holder of a strong trademark.
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