Monster Energy Company v. MONCLER S.p.A.

Both signs ‘MONSTER’ and ‘MONCLER’ consist exclusively of a single word, each of them being virtually meaningless for the relevant public. The latter is a made-up word with no meaning, and the former is a non-basic English term, whose counterpart in Bulgarian departs significantly from it both from a visual and aural perspective. Considering that the goods in conflict have been found at least similar, and that the degree of attention of the relevant public is average at most, there is a risk that the consumer addressed might believe that the products sold under the sign ‘MONCLER’ might originate from the same undertaking that produces the goods under the mark ‘MONSTER’ or, as the case may be, from economically connected undertakings. A likelihood of confusion between the marks in accordance with Article 8(1)(b) EUTMR cannot be excluded at least from the perspective of a non-negligible part of the relevant public, which in this case is represented by a significant part of the Bulgarian public.