UK Court Grants Roederer’s Champagne Wishes in CRISTAL Infringement Case

On October 6, 2015, the English High Court (Court) found that CRISTALINO-brand sparkling wine marketed by J Garcia Carrion SA (Carrion) infringed the trade-mark owned by Champagne Louis Roederer (Roederer) for CRISTAL. The Court’s judgment deals with “source” confusion as well as free-riding on the substantial reputation of CRISTAL in association with champagne. The significant reputation associated with the CRISTAL mark was established despite the fact that most UK consumers were unlikely to have purchased or tasted Roederer’s product.

Roederer was able to establish a strong reputation in the CRISTAL brand in part though unsolicited third-party media references. The Court recognized that the label was adopted as a status symbol by US hip-hop stars in the mid-Nineties. It also accepted survey results showing the strong reputation of the CRISTAL brand among a significant proportion of consumers who have previously bought champagne, despite the fact that the number of survey respondents who were likely actually to have bought or tasted CRISTAL champagne was “tiny”, given the Roederer product’s limited availability and price.

Roederer was also successful on the issues of source confusion, dilution and invalidity of Carrion’s UK and community trade-mark.

More commentary on the decision, which is being regarded as “very brand friendly”, is available here.