On March 22, 2006 LSC left the decisions of the lower instances run. These decisions recognized that the trademark LEGO is well-known in Lithuania and a joint-stock company "Legosta" is obliged to change its company name to the one without the constituent part LEGO. By this ruling it was stated that when considering a certain trademark as well-known, the main criterion should be the question if when estimating the concrete factors of a case it would be reasonable and correct to give a higher protection priority to a trademark which is more famous. When evaluating if a trademark is well-known, it is important to find out if the consumer actually identifies certain goods, items or services with a particular trademark as originating from a particular source (though the name of the company itself is not that important). LSC furthermore declared that well-known trademarks often have characteristics of "commercial magnetism" which leads to other economic subjects trying to use such popularity and recognition of a name and this way get dishonest profit. Furthermore, in this case, LSC has drawn a conclusion that when estimating the relation of a well known trademark against a company name, the question of function identity or similarity between goods/services and a company name might be influential under certain circumstances. |