The Intel Corporation is the rights holder of several trademark registrations for INTEL as a word mark and a device mark in several classes.
The defendant used the designation SEAINTEL as a trademark and company name, SeaIntel Maritime Analysis as a secondary name and 'SeaIntel.com' as a domain name.
Intel sued SeaIntel for trademark violation. During the trial, SeaIntel claimed that 'intel' is an abbreviation of 'intelligence' and that the INTEL mark was thus descriptive.(1)
The court found that 'intel' is not the usual abbreviation of 'intelligence', and that the INTEL trademark was well known in Denmark and the European Union and thus enjoyed protection under Section 4(2) of the Trademarks Act and Article 9(1)(c) of the EU Community Trademark Regulation (207/2009).
The court also found that because 'Intel' was the dominant part of its trademark and designation, SeaIntel had violated Intel's trademark rights, as it must be supposed that relevant customers might connect the parties' trademarks, thus allowing SeaIntel to take unfair advantage of Intel's reputation for innovation, quality and reliability.
The defendant was ordered to cease using the designation SEAINTEL and to pay remuneration of Dkr20,000 plus costs of Dkr40,000.
For further information on this topic please contact Mads Marstrand-Jørgensen at NJORD Law Firm by telephone (+45 33 12 45 22) or email ([email protected]). The NJORD Law Firm website can be accessed at www.njordlaw.com.
Endnotes
(1) Maritime and Commercial Court, November 9 2014, Case V-84-11 and V-89-14: Intel Corporation v SeaIntel ApS.