82The first point to note is that unfair advantage has been taken of the distinctive character or the repute of the earlier mark where there is an attempt at clear exploitation and free-riding on the coat-tails of a famous mark (judgments in SPA-FINDERS, paragraph 25 above, EU:T:2005:179, paragraph 51; nasdaq, paragraph 26 above, EU:T:2007:131, paragraph 55; and BEATLE, paragraph 25 above, EU:T:2012:177, paragraph 63) and that taking unfair advantage of that distinctive character or repute is, therefore, behind the idea of ‘the risk of free-riding’. In other words, the risk of free-riding is the risk that the image of the mark with a reputation or the characteristics which it projects will be transferred to the goods covered by the mark applied for, with the result that the marketing of those goods will be made easier by that association with the earlier mark with a reputation (VIPS, paragraph 25 above, EU:T:2007:93, paragraph 40, and judgment of 22 May 2012 in Environmental Manufacturing v OHIM — Wolf (Representation of a wolf’s head), T‑570/10, ECR, EU:T:2012:250, paragraph 27).
Source: EUR-Lex, © European Union, 1998-2026. Reuse authorised under Decision 2011/833/EU.