The principle of globalassessment, established in Sabel v Puma, starts from a simple premise:consumers perceive a trademark as a whole, not as a sum of separate elements.

The average consumer,an abstract legal standard representing a reasonably well-informed andobservant person, does not analyse details. They retain an overall impression.That is why trademarks are compared holistically, not element by element.

In practice, in anyopposition or infringement action, the key question is this: what would anaverage consumer in the relevant goods category perceive if they saw the twosigns, not necessarily side by side?

At EUIPO and OSIM,arguments based on a fragmentary analysis of signs are frequently rejectedprecisely because they ignore the overall impression. A properly builtopposition file starts with the consumer’s perspective, not the lawyer’s.