© Oriflame
Happy Place is the wellbeing brand of British broadcaster Fearne Cotton. Its foundations were laid in her 2017 book Happy, which became a huge success and led to spin-offs including a podcast, a festival, a publishing house and a mobile app.
Oriflame, meanwhile, is a Swedish beauty brand founded in 1967 that sells beauty and personal care products. It filed a European Union trademark application for the slogan REACH YOUR HAPPY PLACE, covering cosmetics and related retail services, among other things. That slogan soon ran into the HAPPY PLACE trademark.
We Are Happy Place Ltd, the company behind HAPPY PLACE, filed an opposition against the European Union trademark application. It relied on an EU trademark and a Benelux trademark, both figurative marks containing the words HAPPY PLACE, and argued that there was a likelihood of confusion. In that case, the public may believe that the goods and services come from the same undertaking or from economically linked undertakings.
On one side, a fairly long (and rather generic) slogan; on the other, a trademark. Are the marks similar? Yes, according to the Opposition Division of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). In its assessment, the Office took into account that the logo of the HAPPY PLACE marks, a circle and two curved lines, is quite common and has little distinctive character. The emphasis therefore falls on HAPPY PLACE. In the slogan, REACH YOUR was considered subordinate to HAPPY PLACE. Visually, aurally and conceptually, the signs were therefore found to be similar to an average degree, certainly for the English-speaking part of the public. According to the EUIPO, it is plausible that this public would see the slogan as a variant or sub-brand of HAPPY PLACE, with an added meaning.
The slogan was refused for a large part of the goods and services applied for. The practical lesson when checking the availability of slogans is that the individual word combinations should be examined as well, and not just the slogan as a whole. Incidentally, the opposition against ORIFLAME’s second application, ORIFLAME REACH YOUR HAPPY PLACE, has been rejected. Adding "ORIFLAME" to the beginning of the slogan was therefore sufficient. However, ORIFLAME will always be required to use the slogan in conjunction with their name, ORIFLAME.
Author: Arnaud Bos
Bio: Arnaud is trademark attorney and within Knijff responsible for the marketing & communication. Arnaud is specialist in the metaverse and music sectors and his client portfolio includes many upcoming and renowned bands. He keeps a close eye on the latest case law in the EU and will let you know when he sees remarkable applications.