EU Court Backs Apple in Clash With Xiaomi

Apple fended off an attempt by Xiaomi to get a European Union trademark for the name “Mi Pad“ after judges ruled it could easily be confused with the U.S. tech giant’s iPad, according to Bloomberg.

The EU General Court in Luxembourg ruled that Mi Pad “is not to be registered as an EU trademark“ because of the high degree of similarity with the iPhone and iPad product name.

“The presence of the additional letter ‘m’ at the beginning of Mi Pad, is not sufficient to offset the high degree of visual and phonetic similarity,“ the EU’s second-highest court ruled. The risk is that “the relevant public will believe that the goods and services in question“ come from the same company.

Xiaomi in 2014 applied to get the the EU trademark rights to Mi Pad for “electronic devices and telecommunications services.“ Its defeat against Apple is the second in a row, but it can challenge decision one last time at the EU’s top court.