The Savencia group specialized in manufacturing, marketing and distribution of dairy and cheese products, including cheese product known under the brand Caprice Dieux.Il was also charged by Carrefour and Leclerc, produce private label cheese Heart accomplice and Cream Heart.
So it is the manufacturer of the product Caprice des Dieux which supported the making of competing products distributed under private label; this is a common reality in the world of retail.
The trouble began when as Carrefour Leclerc wanted to expand their product range with a "mini" version of their cheeses, like Savencia who launched a Mini Caprice des Dieux.
Thus appeared on the market of cheese Mini Heart Mini Heart and Cream Accomplice.
The Savencia group then brought an action based on the basis of unfair competition and parasitism that. According to the plaintiff manufactured products are copies of his Mini Caprice des Dieux and a likelihood of confusion with its Mini Caprice, which would qualify the act of unfair competition. Moreover newcomer benefited unduly from the reputation of the original product, which would qualify the act of parasitism.
In this case, counterfeiting has never been invoked. This shows that the design of the two incriminated MDD was able to observe a sufficient distance from the marks that run with the original manufacturer.
However, the issue of similarities between private label and original product is quite complex.
Indeed, in marketing a reality for MDD to prosper it must be linked to an existing product. However, if private label is too "close" it will be a counterfeit, or at the very least a lack of unfair competition or parasitism.
The appeals court recognizes that each of these elements taken in isolation, "not characterized alone disloyalty, however as a whole reveals the recovery without need for multiple product characteristics Mini Caprice des Dieux".
However and as the surveys were the judges of first instance, there are as unfair competition and interference between family versions of these cheeses between the versions "mini". The main difference between these versions is ultimately in the fact that for the family version proposer MDD is the same one that offers original and therefore, from that moment, agreed to some extent to be copied .
marketing laws and those of intellectual property therefore do not always mix.
This article is illustrated with a work for which we received courtesy of KIKAYOU: www.kikayou.com
