A trade mark owner filed a lawsuit against a company in Israel on the grounds that it infringes on its registered trademark by marketing shoes. The Israeli company argued that no infringement can be attributed to it because there is no similarity between the signs and there are substantial differences between the companies' products.
The Court held that the owner of a trade mark is entitled to the exclusive use of the trademark regarding the goods for which the mark is registered for and regarding them. Use of a mark resembling a registered trademark is considered infringement. To determine whether there is a deceptive similarity the Court will use auxiliary tests such as: sight, sound, kind, quality, clientele, marketing channels, circumstances and on top of that the common sense test. In the present case, there was considerable similarity between the marks found on the shoes. In addition, the two companies operate in the same market (footwear) and sell millions of shoes every year the same clientele (women). In light of all this, it was determined that the Israeli company infringed upon the registered trademark and was ordered to pay compensation.