L’Occitane has successfully stopped an Italian model from registering a trademark similar to its Erborian brand.
Alice Taticchi was prevented from registering her Arboria Skin Care trademark by the Fifth Board of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
According to the board, potential customers were likely to confuse the two brands due to “strong commonalities, both visually and aurally”.
Taticchi has been embroiled in a dispute with L’Occitane for more than two years.
The former Miss World beauty pageant contestant applied to register Arboria in late 2021.
L’Occitane challenged the application in 2022, a position supported the following year by EUIPO’s opposition division, which concluded that there was a likelihood of confusion between Arboria and Erborian.
Taticchi appealed, arguing that Erborian alludes to “herbs of the orient”, while Arboria was a reference to the word “arboreal”, relating to trees.
However the board ruled that a vast majority of consumers would consider both names to be “meaningless fantasy terms”.
The trademarks in the suit are French trademark number 3457744, international trademark number 1584189, and EU trademark number 018567433.
Erborian, which was co-founded by Katalin Berenyi and Hojung Lee in 2006, has been a part of L’Occitane’s portfolio since 2012.
It uses herbs from the traditional Korean pharmacopoeia to make products that bridge the gap between skin care and make-up.
Arboria’s product line, meanwhile, comprises six skus which are based on aloe vera from Salento, located in the ‘heel’ of Italy.
