On the 31st of July 2014, a Polish company Browary Regionalne Jakubiak sp. z o.o. filed an application with the Polish Patent Office for a device trademark including word SMOK [EN dragon] for goods in class 32, i.e. beer, non-alcoholic beer.

(R.275353, registered on 17 April 2015)

Browar Fortuna sp. z o.o. filed an application for declaration of invalidity based on an earlier word trademark “SMOK” (R.251974), registered on 24th of October 2012 for goods in Class 32 i.e. beer.

On 28th of September 2017, the Polish Patent Office dismissed the application for invalidation. It stated that the dominant element of the contested trademark was the word BOJAN and that there was no risk of confusion between the trademarks.

An appeal was filed with the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw. The court upheld the appeal and pointed out that the Polish Patent Office did not take into account that the word SMOK, which has been fully incorporated into the contested trademark, has a high degree of distinctiveness and that it was dominant element of a contested trademark.

The Court underlined that another factor which increased the likelihood of confusion was that the proprietor of a contested trademark combined the word element SMOK of its trademark with a clear image of a dragon (in Polish: smok), thereby drawing attention to the dominant element of its trademark. Moreover, in the Court’s opinion, the word BOJAN could be understood as the name of a dragon.

Summary

The Supreme Administrative Court upheld the judgment of the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw. It recalled that in the case of device trademarks, the word elements are considered dominant and particularly important for the impression made on the consumer (Judgment of 15 June 2023 in case II GSK 286/20). Finally, the Polish Patent Office, by its decision of the 15th of April 2025, invalidated the contested trademark.