BAUER MEDIA HAS won a High Court case taken by Classic Hits over branding used for Greatest Hits Radio.

The court said plaintiff Choice Broadcasting Limited, which owns Classic Hits Radio, failed to prove misrepresentation that was likely to lead to confusion.

The radio station has been broadcasting as “Ireland’s Classic Hits Radio” for the last three years, but it’s used “Classic Hits” in its brand name since 2011.

Defendant Bauer Audio is a global multimedia company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. It has been buying up radio stations across Europe.

In Ireland, it manages a portfolio of eight FM radio stations including Newstalk, Today FM, iRadio and 98FM.

It also owns the brands “Greatest Hits Radio” and “GHR”, both of which it launched in the UK in 2019.

Choice said it didn’t take issue with fair competition, but it felt that Bauer was using very similar attributes for its Greatest Hits brand, including similar playlists.

Liam Thompson, an experienced radio professional who was called by Bauer, said that there was a difference in the amount of pre-2000s songs included in the two brands’ playlists, albeit not that significant.

Choice argued that Bauer was trying to target a very similar demographic.

It said Bauer’s Greatest Hits had infringed on its trademark, especially since, it argued, the names Classic Hits FM and Classic Hits Radio were often shortened to just “Classic Hits” by listeners and members of the media.

Bauer rejected this, but it was then presented with examples from its own website where the name was shortened. Thompson had also referred to it simply as “Classic Hits” in an email to Bauer’s chief executive.

Choice also highlighted that the second words in both Greatest Hits and Classic Hits are the same, while the first words in both have two syllables. 

Bauer argued that the fact that they are both adjectives that have two syllables “cannot create visual, aural or conceptual similarity where there is none”.

The High Court today declared that the trademarking for Classic Hits was invalid.

Another hearing will be held on 14 October to deal with legal costs.