A company operating in the real estate and urban renewal sector demanded a competing company to change its name due to its similarity and being misleading.
The Court accepted the claim and held the competing company is to refrain from using its registered name as long as it is operating in the urban renewal sector. Israeli law empowers to prevent a company that has taken another company's name, or a name that is deceptively similar, from using the name registered in the Companies Registrar records. The question whether exists an apprehension of misleading will be examined by the look and sound test, the type of goods and customers test and the other circumstances test. Here, there was a similarity both in terms of looks and sound as the name of the competing company includes the words "Israel-Europe Group" while this is the common commercial name with which the original company is identified by. In addition, both companies operate in the same field (real estate and urban renewal) and appeal to similar target audiences. The "Israel-Europe" brand is identified with the original company which has a reputation in the field of urban renewal. The use of a similar name by the competing company caused various people to actually get confused between the two companies. Therefore, the competing company is not allowed to use its registered name as long as it operating in the field of urban renewal or any other name that includes the words "Israel Europe".