The General Court of the European Union recognizes all of the Bolgheri Consortium’s arguments in the case against the Bulgarian trademark Bolgaré, whose appeal is found to be definitively and manifestly unfounded because the Bolgaré trademark is evocative of the appellation.
After 6 years of waiting, one can fortunately write a happy ending to an affair that saw the Bolgheri appellation of origin threatened, in a scenario that other Italian PDOs have experienced or are experiencing. In 2017, in fact, Domaine Boyar, Bulgaria’s largest winery, had applied at the European trademark office, EUIPO, to register the trademark “Bolgaré” in the class of alcoholic products. Surprisingly, the opposition filed by the Consortium was rejected, and it took until last March when the EUIPO accepted the Consortium’s appeal in full.
Following this, the Bulgarian side appealed the decision before the General Court of the European Union, which, after about a year, has now given a final and unequivocal ruling on the matter. The highest EU court ruled, without even setting a hearing, because the judges, reading the Consortium’s defense as well as the EUIPO decision, found the Bulgarian appeal manifestly unfounded. The ruling reads that the trademark “Bolgaré” is likely to evoke, in the minds of the relevant public, the PDO “Bolgheri.” In particular, the Tribunal added that this circumstance cannot be called into question by the fact, argued by the other party, that the relevant public might perceive the mark “Bolgaré” as a reference to Bulgaria. And in fact, according to the Tribunal, this circumstance, even if it were established, is not sufficient to prevent the public, when faced with the mark “Bolgaré,” from also having in mind the image of the product covered by the PDO Bolgheri.
Specifically, between the two terms there is: 1) phonetic similarity, 2) similar number of letters, the first four of which are the same, 3) identity of products 4) figurative similarity in writing characters. This ruling turns out to have significance far beyond the interests of the Bolgheri area; it will be a key precedent for the protection of Italian and European designations of origin. For Bugnion SpA, which assisted the Consortium in the first two levels before the EUIPO, and for EY, which continued the defense before the General Court of the European Union, it is a victory for all Italian wine appellations, an affirmation of the absolute protection of PDOs/PGIs in the European Union against attempts to latch on beyond any linguistic or historical excuse, which was able to highlight before the EUIPO and the General Court of the European Union
Satisfaction from Tuscany’s agrifood councillor Stefania Saccardi: “It is the sentence we expected because Bolgheri is not a play on words. Bolgheri is a unique territory that exists only in that name, the same name of a product that only this land offers us, the result of a unique know-how and tradition.”
“With this decision,” Saccardi adds, “the European Trademark Office confirms that Tuscany and ‘made in Tuscany’ are not a mere matter of backyard defense but are the answer to those who need to find a quality product that is associated with beauty, history and value: the 66 member companies of the Consortium. All of this is Bolgheri, far more and far beyond clumsy attempts to fool a few clueless people. This ruling marks a fundamental precedent for the protection of Tuscan and Italian DOC and PDO/PGI wines.”
