Westlife in bitter fight over naming rights

IRISH boyband Westlife and a German tobacco firm have become involved in a bitter legal battle over attempts to have their names registered as trademarks.

A five-year dispute between the chart-topping pop group and the manufacture of West cigarettes will end up in the European Court of Justice next week.

The EU Court of First Instance will hear an application on Tuesday from Reemark seeking to quash the official recognition of Westlife as a trademark.

Reemark, which manufactures the popular West brand of cigarettes, is opposing a decision by the EU Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM), which has responsibility for trademarks and designs, to certify the name ‘Westlife’ as a trademark.

The German company maintains that the name is too similar to the brand name ‘West’ which was registered at an earlier date as a trademark in Germany.

West are concerned about potential confusion because both trademarks sell similar types of merchandise.

Specialist patent lawyers representing Reemark will argue that the similarity of the names could confuse.

However, Westlife have argued that the two names are “distinctly different.” “The difference in length alone has a consequence that no consumer will read or hear ‘West’ for ‘Westlife’ or vice versa,” said Reiner Prietsch, the German lawyer representing the pop group.