Wine Law

21 4) Concerning the assessment of similarity of goods and services in the wine sector, EUIPO 43 considers that:  wines (class 33) are similar to beers at a low degree (class 32) 44 , although their production processes are different and they are two different products. Indeed, they are of the same nature since they all belong to the same category of alcoholic drinks. They can be served in restaurants and in bars and are on sale in the same area of supermarkets and grocery stores. Furthermore, some alcoholic beverages may originate from the same source;  wines are dissimilar to wineglasses (class 21), even if there is a degree of complementarity between them in so far as wineglasses are intended to be used for drinking wine 45 ;  wines are dissimilar to mineral and aerated waters and other non-alcoholic drinks, syrups and other preparations for making beverages and mixed lemonade-based drinks (class 32) 46 ; and  alcoholic beverages and energy drinks are dissimilar 47 . Thus, they cannot be considered as similar merely because they can be mixed, consumed or marketed together, given that the nature, intended purpose and use of those goods differ, based on the presence of, or absence of alcohol in their composition. 5) Regarding the assessment of the similarity of signs, it is made in consideration of the coinciding and differing visual, phonetic or conceptual elements of the signs at issue, the overall impression given by them, account being taken, in particular, of their distinctive and dominant components. It is a settled case that consumers normally attach more importance to verbal elements and to the beginning of words. However, for wines and alcoholic beverages, a particular importance must be attached to the phonetic aspect 48 , since consumers choose their wine from a wine list before placing their order verbally and since they are most often ordered in noisy locations, such as bars and restaurants. Furthermore, they are normally sold in self- 43 See EUIPO Trademarks Guidelines. 44 TEU 18 June 2006, Coca Cola Company T-175/06. 45 ECJ 7 May 2009, Waterford Stellenbosch C-398/07. 46 See footnote 44. 47 TEU 4 October 2018, Flugel, T-150/17, §§77-84. 48 TEU 2 February 2016 Antica Azienda Agricola Vitivinicola del Conti Leone de castris Srl “Illiria”, T-541/14 §48.