(Case T-459/21 Action brought on 3August 2021– Calrose Rice v EUIPO– Ricegrowers (Sunwhite)

Action brought on 3August 2021– Calrose Rice v EUIPO– Ricegrowers (Sunwhite)

(Case T-459/21)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicant: Calrose Rice (Sofia, Bulgaria) (represented by: H.Raychev, lawyer)

Defendant: European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO)

Other party to the proceedings before the Board of Appeal: Ricegrowers Ltd (Leeton, New South Wales, Australia)

Details of the proceedings before EUIPO

Applicant of the trade mark at issue: Applicant before the General Court

Trade mark at issue: Application for European Union figurative mark Sunwhite – Application for registration No18115808

Procedure before EUIPO: Opposition proceedings

Contested decision: Decision of the Fourth Board of Appeal of EUIPO of 4June 2021 in Case R2465/2020-4

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:

annul the contested decision and remit the European trade mark application No18115808 SUNWHITE to the EUIPO in order to allow it to proceed to registration;

order the EUIPO and the intervener in the present proceedings to bear their own costs and to pay the applicant’s costs of these proceedings, as well as the costs of the appeal procedure before the Fourth Board of Appeal.

Pleas in law

The Board wrongly assumed that the applicant had admitted in its statement of grounds that the compared goods in Class 30 are identical;

The Board erred in finding that the compared signs share all their elements;

The Board was wrong to limit, or focus exclusively, its conclusions regarding the comparison of the signs on the verbal components of the signs;

The Board failed to take sufficient account of the visual difference between the marks and made merely general conclusions in this regard without concrete reasoning.

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