Abion / Blog / Polestar temporarily banned from the French market
partnerprogrammet Juristkontor Abion

Volvo-backed Polestar temporarily banned from the French market over likelihood of confusion with Citroën’s logo.

How an ongoing trade mark dispute denies a company the access to an entire territory

On June 4, 2020, the Third Chamber of the tribunal Judiciaire de Paris (Court of Justice of Paris) issued a ruling forbidding the Swedish company Polestar Holding AB to use its logo in France for six months after a period of three months following the publication of the judgment.

Background

Polestar is an automotive brand, owned by Volvo Cars and producing high-end electric performance cars. Polestar owns several trade mark registrations for its logo, composed of two chrome chevrons facing each other forming a star, valid throughout the European Union, including France.

The French car brand Citroën has been trying to obtain cancellation of Polestar’s trade mark registrations before the EUIPO, the European Union Intellectual Property Office. The applications for declaration of invalidity were based on Citroën’s earlier registered logotype, featuring two superimposed chrome chevrons, and claimed that there is a likelihood of confusion between the two logos.

The EUIPO decided on two occasions, in January 2020, that the signs were visually dissimilar and that therefore, there was no risk of confusion among customers. The EUIPO found notably that the logos differ in the way the chevrons are depicted, in particular their angle and direction. Being unsuccessful before the EUIPO and fearing the impending launch of Polestar cars on the French market, scheduled for the beginning of 2020, Citroën sought another legal way to protect its logo and brought an action against Polestar for trade mark infringement, counterfeiting, and unfair competition.

The Court of Justice of Paris ruled

In essence that the signs being only vaguely visually similar, and the attention of the relevant consumer being high, it prevents a finding of likelihood of confusion between the trade marks. However, the Court decided that given the exceptional reputation of the Citroën brand among French consumers, and based on evidence presented by Citroën showing comments from Internet users noticing similarities between the logos, there is a risk that consumers may link both brands. The Court considered thus that Polestar takes undue advantage of Citroën’s repute and infringes Citroën’s trade marks.

It is interesting to point out that the Court decided that the use of the Polestar logo in France constitutes an infringement to Citroën’s brand, while ruling that there is no likelihood of confusion between the trade marks.

In the case at stake, it is the reputation of the Citroën trade mark that causes the trade mark infringement, as the visual similarity between the logos combined with Citroën's significant reputation would necessarily benefit Polestar. Despite the French Court’s judgment, the Polestar trade mark registration is still valid in France, as the EUIPO has dismissed Citroën’s applications for cancellation of the trade mark. It will be interesting to see if Citroën files an appeal to these decisions before the Appeal Board of the EUIPO.

Guide skydda varumärket

Guide

The optimal guide to understanding how to protect your brand

Read guide

Want to know how we can help you brand? 

Related reading

Abion Expands Norwegian Presence with Acquisition of Leading Domain Service Provider, Softgarden

Abion Expands Norwegian Presence with Acquisition of Leading Domain Service Provider, Softgarden

Announcements
English
pll_672372ce71107
5, November 2024
We are excited to announce the acquisition of Lane IP, a renowned UK-based IP specialist. This strategic acquisiti...
Domain Names

ICANN Ends Private Auctions for gTLDs

Domain Management
English
16, October 2024
ICANN has announced that private auctions will no longer be allowed — which were previously used to resolve situat...

This website uses cookies

Cookies ("cookies") consist of small text files. The text files contain data which is stored on your device. To be able to place some type of cookies we need your consent. We at Abion AB, corporate identity number 556633-6169 use these types of cookies. To read more about which cookies we use and storage duration, click here to get to our cookiepolicy.

Manage your cookie-settings

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies are cookies that need to be placed for fundamental functions on the website to work. Fundamental functions are for instance cookies that are needed for you to use menus and navigate the website.

Functional cookies

Functional cookies need to be placed for the website to perform in the way that you expect. For instance to remember which language you prefer, to know if you are logged in, to keep the website secure, remember login credentials or to enable sorting of products on the website in the way that you prefer.

Statistical cookies

To know how you interact with the website we place cookies to collect statistics. These cookies anonymize personal data.

Ad measurement cookies

To be able to provide a better service and experience we place cookies to tailor marketing for you. Another purpose for this placement is to market products or services to you, give tailored offers or market and give recommendations on new concepts based on what you have bought from us previously.

Ad measurement user cookies

In order to show relevant ads we place cookies to tailor ads for you

Personalized ads cookies

To show relevant and personal ads we place cookies to provide unique offers that are tailored to your user data