A judge has ordered a businessman to change the name of his shoe shop after he was found to have breached the trademark of a competitor.

The owner of ShoeMarket breached the trademark registered in 2003 by a competing shoe store, ShoeMark, creating unfair competition.

Judge Mark Chetcuti delivered judgement in a case filed before the First Hall of the Civil Court by Mark Attard, the owner of ShoeMark who complained that a competing establishment, ShoeMarket, was creating confusion among consumers.

The court heard Mr Attard testify how he registered the name of his shop, ShoeMark, in March 2003, shortly before opening his first outlet.

Some two years later, a certain Mark Micallef approached him with a business proposal – he wanted to buy the shoes off him to re-sell.

Mr Attard agreed and supplied Mr Micallef with shoes but asked him several times to change the name of his shop because it was too similar to his and was creating confusion.

Mr Attard told the court he later suspected Mr Micallef was trying to find out who his supplier was so he stopped supplying him. Some time later, Mr Micallef ordered a container full of shoes from his supplier.

Mr Attard said he explained the situation to the supplier who, in turn, also stopped supplying Mr Micallef.

He told the court how at one time clients were turning up at his shop holding adverts by his competitor. These adverts had stopped because, he suspected, ShoeMarket was taking advantage of the extensive advertising campaigns undertaken by ShoeMark.

The shop names also created confusion among postmen because he even received post addressed to his competitor and vice versa.

The owners of ShoeMarket did not appear in court to rebut the claims.

Mr Justice Chetcuti quoted jurisprudence on trademarks, including a judgement by the European Court of Justice, and noted how the similarity of the two shop names and the almost identical products they offered were confusing consumers.

He said it had not resulted that the name ShoeMarket had been registered as a trademark.

Mr Justice Chetcuti found that ShoeMarket Retail Stores Limited had breached the trademark owned by ShoeMark, creating unfair competition, and therefore ordered it to change its name with immediate effect.

Lawyers Antonio Depasquale and Deborah Delceppo appeared for ShoeMark.