French Competition Law provides a comprehensive review of the French rules relating to competition: restrictive agreements, commercial negotiation, abuses of a dominant position, procedure and merger control.

French Competition Law

Even though it is not necessary for confusion to be present for a finding of unlawfulness, a distinction must in practice be made between the usurpation of work of others by the appropriation of knowledge or know-how and the imitation of a product or a work. In the first case, the courts sanction the unfair nature of the obtaining of the information, regardless of the existence of confusion . In t …

Distinction

Even though it is not necessary for confusion to be present for a finding of unlawfulness, a distinction must in practice be made between the usurpation of work of others by the appropriation of knowledge or know-how and the imitation of a product or a work. In the first case, the courts sanction the unfair nature of the obtaining of the information, regardless of the existence of confusion . In the second case, they repress the association with a pre-existing reputation through either the appropriation of characteristic elements of the victim's work, giving rise to the capture of his customers , or the slavish copying of the product creating a risk of confusion or association . 

CA Pau, 31 January 2014, LawLex201400000225JBJ; CA Paris, 12 March 2014, LawLex201400001704JBJ, for the unfair appropriation by a company of the illustration on bottles of wine evoking the association of the beverage to a type of dish; 30 October 2014, LawLex201400001196JBJ, holding that the variances in the same color of a slim-cut pair of jeans with the image of a python -  of which some differences with the claimant's design did not give rise to any risk of confusion - characterizes parasitic behavior, insofar as the color in question is not the result of random factors nor is it attributable to fashion trends, but comes from the creative work of the victim; Cass. 1re civ., 12 November 2015, LawLex201500001449JBJ, parasitic act stemming from the violation of a website's charter of use.

TGI Paris, 30 March 2004, LawLex200400000193JBJ.

CA Paris, 25 January 2012, LawLex201200000193JBJ; 5 March 2014, LawLex201400001629JBJ, no parasitism where neither consumers nor  traders consider that the allegedly copied name "les Castels" is specific to an association offering camping in the grounds of castles.

French Competition Law

100. Distinction

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

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Les notions juridiques connexes

100. Distinction

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Sous parties

Les notions juridiques connexes

Demandez un accès gratuit
au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise