Businesses could have more difficulty protecting their trade mark rights from rivals who encroach on their brand names in different markets, in the wake of a far-reaching decision in Europe’s top court on Thursday.

The case involved Intel, the US chipmaker, and CPM which had registered the trade mark Intelmark for marketing and telemarketing services. An English court referred the matter to the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice to decide whether the link between Intel’s name and Intelmark was strong enough to impinge on the chipmaker’s trade mark rights.