Velib\u2019 is a famous French brand for self-service bicycles that was launched by the City of Paris on 15 July 2007. It is very popular among tourists. Velib\u2019 was the first of a kind and has been duplicated by many cities across the world since then.<\/p>\n
The offer was followed by Autolib\u2019 in 2011, an equivalent of Velib\u2019 services for cars. And for scooters, there is…? Cityscoot!<\/p>\n
Indeed, the Court of Appeal of Paris (26 May 2017, Paris City \/ Scootlib France and others) has cancelled the trademark Scootlib’Paris filed in 2011 by the City of Paris for infringement of the earlier mark Scootlib, filed on 9 October 2007 by a Luxembourg company for competing products and services.<\/p>\n
A reminder of the background is helpful to get the situation clear. The mark Velib\u2019 was filed on 19 February 2007 and the domain names velib.fr, velib.org, velib.biz, velib.info and velib.eu registered on 28 February 2007.<\/p>\n
However, in November 2007, when self-service scooters are evoked by the press under the name Scootlib, the mark has already been filed by a Luxembourg company, early October.<\/p>\n
What then? The sign Velib\u2019 is evocative, and therefore weakly distinctive for self-service bikes. Velib\u2019 is the combination of the contraction of \u201cv\u00e9lo\u201d (which means bike) and \u201clibert\u00e9\u201d (for freedom).<\/p>\n
The advertising campaign for Velib\u2019 was extremely successful and helped strengthen the knowledge of the mark by the public, hence its scope of protection. As soon as 2011, thanks to its reputation, the Velib\u2019 trademark was successfully opposed to new trademark applications such as CITYLIB, BOATLIB, ROUTELIB, VESPALIB and VOGLIB (although they were visually and phonetically dissimilar).<\/p>\n
However, back in October 2007 when the trademark Scootlib was filed and began to be used, the situation was quite different. The trademark Velib\u2019 was to be considered as weak and not particularly known. The Court of Appeal then considered that the visual and phonetic differences between Velib\u2019 and Scootlib could not be compensated for by the intellectual similarities between the signs. Furthermore, no fraudulent intent by the applicant could be evidenced.<\/p>\n