ENI’s Trademark is refused grant of Protection in class 25 of the Nice Classification.

In 2011 Eni S.p.A. (ENI) asked the European Court of Justice to overturn a decision of OHIM  by which it was declared that there was likelihood of confusion between the trademark EMI owned by Emi Ltd.  and the registration made by ENI for products and services in Class 25 of the Nice classification system (clothing, footwear and headgear).

By decision of 8 September 2011, the OHIM dismissed the appeal lodged by ENI believing that there was an existence of a likelihood of confusion due to the similarity of the goods covered by the mark applied for, namely clothing, as well as the visual and phonetic similarity of the signs.

The EU General Court, in its judgment of 21 May 2014 ( T-599/11 ), in dismissing the action, considered the correct decision of the OHIM Board of Appeal, which concluded for the similarity of the goods and services in question and likeliness of confusion.