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The company Mariage Frères is holder of the trademarks THE DE PÂQUES and THE ST VALENTIN to designate teas, mainly under class 30, and has taken action
for infringement of trademark against the company Fauchon, which had branded celebration teas by using names such as THE DE PÂQUES and THE DE ST VALENTIN. On September 19, 2007, the Tribunal de Grande Instance (Court of First Instance) of Paris considered that the trademarks THE DE PÂQUES and THE ST VALENTIN are valid as long as there is no link, of any kind whatsoever, between the Easter and Saint Valentin celebrations and the tea. On the other hand, the judges considered that these trademark rights, based on common terms, could not prevent their use under normal conditions. Therefore, the infringement could not be established as it only pertained to Fauchon using common language terms and referring to celebrations to which the "celebration teas" were linked on the Internet site.
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