Red Bull Loses Against Polish Beverage Producer

On December 14, 2010, Warsaw’s Voivodeship Administrative Court ruled against Austrian beverage company Red Bull in a dispute against the Polish leading beverage and mineral water producer Dodoni, which registered the trademark Red Dragon (R-179732) in Class 32, same class as for the Red Bull energy drink.

Red Bull claimed that Red Dragon is similar to its trademarks Red Bull (R-207549), Red Bull Energy Drink (IR-0715531) and the Community Trade Mark Red, and that Dodoni would gain unfair advantage by registering the Red Dragon trademark.

The court ruled that the Red Dragon trademark, composed of the English word “red” and of the Polish word “dragon”, meaning mounted infantry or a tall, stout, vigorous, sprawling woman, cannot hurt Red Bull’s distinctiveness and market reputation.

The Polish Patent Office (PPO) had previously dismissed Red Bull’s opposition notice against Dodoni claiming that the two marks were aurally, verbally and conceptually different, having in common only the word “red”, which is also present in other trademarks registered for goods in Class 32.

For more information, please contact Masa Lopicic at our Balkan Regional Office.

Source: Rychlicki, Polish IP news portal