Greece: Clarity on colour combinations

Managing IP is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Gardens, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Greece: Clarity on colour combinations

It is quite encouraging for law practitioners in Greece that Greek IP specialised courts have managed to align national case law with EU case law on trademarks during the last decade, providing a tool for legal certainty.

A couple of years ago, the IP Specialised Division of the Court of Appeals in Athens delivered judgment No. 1702/2016 on a trademark infringement case where a colour combination was involved. It was held that the word marks under comparison were not confusingly similar. It was further ruled that the accompanying colour combination was not decisive, since the colour combination concerned was found to be descriptive of the relevant goods (over-the-counter pharmaceuticals).

Recently, the General Court was of the same view (T-261/17), when it ruled on a comparison between the same signs applying the same EU case law principle, according to which the public will not consider a descriptive element of a composite mark to be the distinctive and dominant element in the overall impression conveyed by that mark.

This provided a clear – though apparently not complete – answer to the claimant's/opponent's main argument that the figurative elements in the mark applied-for, particularly the combination and configuration of the colours green and white, have an independent distinctive character even if the word element is considered dominant.

It seems that while the competent authorities in each instance (EU and national) regarded the colour combination to be the earlier mark's colour configuration as well, the applicant argued that it used a colour combination in a specific configuration. Thus, what seems to be left unanswered is whether a prima facie descriptive colour combination may have distinctiveness, in cases where the specific colour configuration is not descriptive in and of itself.

The question becomes more intriguing, considering that the specific colour configuration has been registered as a trademark, the validity of which is not questioned.

metaxakis-manolis.jpg

Manolis Metaxakis


Patrinos & Kilimiris7, Hatziyianni Mexi Str.GR-11528 AthensGreeceTel: +30210 7222906, 7222050Fax: +30210 7222889info@patrinoskilimiris.comwww.patrinoskilimiris.com

more from across site and SHARED ros bottom lb

More from across our site

EA, owner of video games including Madden and The Sims, will be sold to a consortium including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and a firm owned by Donald Trump’s son-in-law
New arrival marks Mewburn Ellis' second partner hire in ten days as firm looks to boost patent litigation and prosecution capabilities
In-house counsel and teams are invited to submit information for the 21st annual Managing IP Awards
The 2025 list of Rising Stars and Corporate Stars, produced by Managing IP’s accreditation title IP STARS, is now available
Eszter Szakács, partner at Danubia in Hungary, discusses women’s progression, workplace flexibility, and how to deal with imposter syndrome
Rob Fewery is a solicitor at Allwyn Entertainment in the UK
Piotr Rafalski is a patent attorney at Qemetica in Poland
Roshni Suchak is a legal counsel at SSP Group in the UK
Nour Abboud is global legal counsel, IT, digital, AI at Moët & Chandon in France
Nadav Lev is legal counsel for IP, licensing, and brand protection at Playtika in Israel
Gift this article