No room for two “Villers” beers, according to Brussels Court of Appeal
The Brussels’ Court of Appeal holds that the beer names “Abbaye de Villers V” and “Abbaye de Villers IX” infringe the Villers trademarks of Huyghe and orders a recall.
Brewery Huyghe, brewer of the pink elephant “Delirium” beer, prevails in
a trademark battle for the name “Villers”.
For a long time, Huyghe has been brewing “Triple
Villers” and “Vieille Villers”. Huyghe also owns the corresponding trademarks.
In 2015, the company Abbaye de Villers-la-Ville ASBL started selling the
self-declared abbey beers “Abbaye de Villers V” and “Abbaye de Villers IX”. By
judgment of 26 April 2018, the Brussels’ Court of Appeal holds that these beer
names infringe the Villers trademarks of
Huyghe and orders a recall.
the attention the Brussels’ Court of Appeal pays to the definition of the
relevant public in relation to beers. The Court qualifies all beers, either
pilsner beers, specialty beers or abbey beers, as common consumer goods
intended for the general public. The public is deemed to be composed of the
average beer consumer, who is reasonably well-informed and has a normal level
of attention. Although this beer consumer is aware of the fact that beer labels
often are composed of complex word and device elements, they pay no particular
attention to such elements. Moreover, beers are i.a. sold in restaurants
and bars, where the consumer is not distracted by figurative elements at the
time of purchase. The consumer chooses a beer on the basis of the plain beer
name mentioned on the menu. As a result, phonetic similarity is highly
important. Overall, the Court finds that the names Villers, Villers V,
Villers IX, Villers Authentique, Triple Villers, Abbaye de Villers, Abbaye de
Villers V, Abbaye de Villers IX, Abbaye de Villers Authentique and Abbaye
de Villers Triple are confusingly similar to the trademarks of Huyghe.
The Brussels’ Court of Appeal further rejects the
nullity action based on the geographical and misleading character of Huyghe’s Villers
trademarks, which was filed by way of a counterclaim. The Court considers that
none of the Villers trademarks exclusively refer to the geographical
location of Villers-la-Ville. The marks also consist of other word and device elements,
such as the word “Tripel” and the blazon. Moreover, there is no reason to
believe that the relevant public would associate the Villers trademarks
with Villers-la-Ville, which is not particularly renowned for its beer
production, nor to its abbey, nor that they would think that these beers are
actually brewed there. The fact that there are various cities in Belgium with
Villers in their name (e.g. Villers-sur-Lesse) implies all the more that
“Villers” might as well refer to a fantasy name or a patronym.
CAPE IP acted as counsel for Huyghe and is very
pleased with this decision, which is in principle
still open for appeal to the Belgian Supreme Court.