TRADEMARK | The General Court on low overall similarity leading to a lack of likelihood of confusion

On 4 February 2026, the General Court of the European Union (GC) delivered its judgment in case T-142/25 (Médis – Companhia portuguesa de seguros de saúde, S. A. v EUIPO), concerning opposition proceedings against an EU figurative trademark application for “WelMedis”, based on an earlier international registration for the figurative sign “médis”. The GC upheld the EUIPO Board of Appeal’s assessment under Article 8(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No. 1001 of 14 June 2017, confirming that there was no likelihood of confusion for the relevant public, since sharing a common term (i.e., “medis/médis”) is not sufficient if the global assessment points to a sufficiently different overall impression. Notably, the GC stressed the limited similarity between the signs when assessed visually, phonetically and conceptually, as well as the lack of identity between the goods and services in question. Moreover, the GC clarified that, where similarity between signs is weak, the outcome will often turn on a granular, evidence-based comparison of the goods and services (i.e., nature, purpose, channels of trade and complementarity), rather than on broad class labels.

Newsletter n. 115 – February 2026