IP Snapshot - July 2012

TRADE MARKS AND PASSING OFF

Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys v Registrar of Trade Marks, Case C-307/10, 19 June 2012

The CJEU has ruled on the questions referred to it following the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorney's appeal against the refusal to allow its registration of "IP TRANSLATOR" in relation to Class 41 of the Nice Classification. Goods or services to be protected by a trade mark must be identified by an applicant with sufficient clarity and precision to enable competent authorities and economic operators, on that basis alone, to determine the extent of the protection sought. An applicant may use all the general indications of a particular class to identify goods or services, but it must then also specify whether it intends to cover all or only some of the goods or services included in the alphabetical list of that class.