Sports Brands: French Football Federation Wins Rooster Fight

This material was first published by Thomson Reuters, trading as Sweet & Maxwell, 5 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5AQ, in Entertainment Law Review – (2025) 36 Ent. L.R. Issue 4, and is reproduced by agreement with the publishers. For further details, please see the publishers' website.

The EU General Court has issued a decision on an appeal from a EUIPO Board of Appeal decision in opposition proceedings brought by the French Football Federation concerning two trade marks featuring stylised representations of a rooster. While affirming EUIPO’s finding of a likelihood of confusion, the Court took issue with its assessment of the degree of similarity between the signs. The General Court made its own assessment of the signs and seized the opportunity to reiterate established principles on dominant elements and conceptual similarity.

This article reviews this assessment and highlights these principles.

You can read it in full below: