Xiaomi’s attack to annals Mi Pad as an EU brand gets denied

Xiaomi has the advantage to address adjoin the cardinal to the European Union's accomplished court, admitting the aggregation did not affair any statement.

It looks like Xiaomi will not be able to use the ‘Mi Pad’ name for its tablets in the European Union, acknowledgment to the EU’s second-highest cloister balustrade with Apple in a contempo accommodation that prevents Xiaomi from registering Mi Pad as a trademark.

This all started aback in 2014, back Xiaomi filed an appliance with the EU Intellectual Property Appointment (EUIPO) to annals Mi Pad as a trademark. Apple after filed a complaint with the EUIPO, and the appointment agreed that association could distort Mi Pad as a aberration of the absolute iPad trademark.

The case was again accelerate to the General Court, the EU’s second-highest court, which, as Reuters reported, ruled that it was not in the accessible absorption for Xiaomi to annals Mi Pad as a trademark. According to the court, consumers could abash the affinity of the signs:

More specifically, the General Cloister believes that association will accent Mi Pad and iPad the aforementioned way, which backs up the EUIPO and its accommodation to ancillary with Apple:

Xiaomi can address the cardinal to the Cloister of Justice of the European Union, the EU’s accomplished court, admitting the aggregation did not say what will be its abutting move. If the accommodation is larboard as is, Xiaomi cannot annals Mi Pad as a brand in the EU, which will force the aggregation to rename its book if it wants to advertise it in the region.

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The contrast amid the signs at issue, consistent from the attendance of the added letter ‘m’ at the alpha of ‘Mi Pad,” is not acceptable to account the aerial amount of beheld and phonetic affinity amid the two signs.

The cloister agreed with the EUIPO’s accommodation and said English-speaking consumers were acceptable to accept the prefix ‘mi’ as acceptation ‘my’ and accordingly accent the ‘i’ of Mi Pad and iPad in the aforementioned way.