The Partner, General director of ELL PARTNERSHIP Law Firm Gohar Gevorgyan represented the interests of the French company "Savencia" in the Administrative Court of the Republic of Armenia, whose trademarks were disputed on the basis of their similarity to the "Camember de Normandie" geographical sign. A public authority operating under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry of France claimed in the administrative court that the word element "NORMANDINE" in the trademarks "NORMANDINE 1979" /no. 30598/ and "NORMANDINE marquee français depuis 1979" /no. 30599/ belonging to our client is confusingly similar to the protected geographical indication, so it could not be registered and used for the range of cheeses. It is noteworthy that the geographical indication "Camember de Normandie" (translated as Camember from Normandy) refers to Camembert type cheese, the name "Normandie" in the name of the sign is the name of a separate administrative territorial unit of France, and "Camember" is the name of a village located in the specified area. The name "NORMANDINE" included in the trademarks owned by our client is a fictitious word.

The court, based on the counterarguments and arguments presented by the Attorney at law, rightly found that there is no danger that hearing or seeing the trademarks registered in the name of our client, the consumer will have any delusion about the geographical origin of Camember de Normandie, and accordingly, regarding its quality, nature or manufacturer.

The court case is rare among similar disputes, due to its lack of distribution in the Republic of Armenia, so it can be of interest to a narrow professional audience as well.