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Legalbrief   |   your legal news hub Sunday 26 April 2026

Westlife can’t register name

The European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg has rejected a bid by Irish boy band Westlife to register their name as an EU trademark.

The Scotsman reports the judges ruled ‘Westlife’ was too similar to the word ‘West’, which has been trademarked by a German tobacco firm – and they said the fact that Germans say ‘vest’ and not ‘west’ would not lessen the possible confusion. The court said the similarity was enough to confuse the ‘average German consumer’. Full report in The Scotsman