Barbara Becker accomplished her Community Trademark (CTM) application “Barbara Becker” against Hamann’s CTM “Becker”.

Becker v. Barbara Becker

Barbara Becker accomplished her Community Trademark (CTM) application “Barbara Becker” against Hamann’s CTM “Becker”.

The ECJ finally decided that the “Thompson Life” decision cannot be schematically transferred to the current case of the two opposing name marks both bearing a family name (ECJ decision dated 24 June 2010, file C-51/09P).The Court stipulated that a family name in a mark also comprising the first name of a person does not necessarily lead to a risk of confusion although the traffic perceives the last name as such. The fame of a person may also have influence on the perception of a mark comprising the first and last name.[:]