Costa Rica upholds refusal to register OLYMPIKUS logo

Brazilian company Calcado Azaleia failed in its appeal against rejection of its application to register the  mark OLYMPIKUS & Logo in Costa Rica for “clothing, footwear, headgear” (Class 25), following an opposition by the Costa Rican National Olympic Committee.

The Law of Creation of the Costa Rican Institute for Sports and Recreation and Legal Regimen of Physical Education, Sports and Recreation grants the local Olympic Committee exclusive use of the words “Olympic”, “Olympiad” and the five interlocking rings of the International Olympic Committee. Calcado Azaleia had submitted that this law only protected the Committee against use of identical marks, that its own mark was neither identical nor confusingly similar and it was a famous mark in a number of other jurisdictions -- none of which swayed the Tribunal Registral Administrativo, Costa Rica's administrative appeal board. According to the Tribunal, the application was barred from registration on both absolute and relative grounds and that, even if the mark were famous elsewhere, that did not affect its registrability in Costa Rica.

Source, from which further legal detail is available: news item in INTA Bulletin vol.69, no.8, published by the International Trademark Association, 15 April 2014