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ARTICLE · 11 MARCH 2015

A Matter Of Taste

ENS
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A court in the USA recently ruled on a matter involving that rarest of creatures, a taste trade mark - something that’s referred to by those who like to flaunt their vocabulary as a ‘gustatory trade mark’.

South AfricaIntellectual Property
Waldo Steyn
Waldo Steyn
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A court in the USA recently ruled on a matter involving that rarest of creatures, a taste trade mark -   something that's referred to by those  who like to flaunt their vocabulary as a 'gustatory trade mark'.  In the case of New York Pizzeria v Ravinder Syal the issue was whether a restaurant could claim trade mark rights to a particular pizza taste.

The US court said no. It raised the same objections that have been raised in similar cases in the past. It accepted that 'flavour can carry meaning', but it said that 'meaning entitles a mark to trademark protection only if it distinguishes the source of the product'. It said that 'it is unlikely that flavours can ever be inherently distinctive because they do not automatically suggest a product source.' It said that 'functional product features are not protectable'.

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