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ARTICLE · 28 APRIL 2005

Descriptive Trade Marks - A Question of Degree

Pinsent Masons
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There have been a whole raft of decisions issued by the European Court of First Instance (CFI) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over the last two years concerning the question of how one evaluates whether a trade mark is descriptive. Marks such as BIOMILD, POSTKANTOOR, DOUBLEMINT and BABY-DRY should now trip off the tongue of any trade mark lawyer. One must now add a new mark to that illustrious list, EUROPREMIUM.

United KingdomInternational Law
Lindsey Wrenn
Lindsey Wrenn

Originally published March 2005

There have been a whole raft of decisions issued by the European Court of First Instance (CFI) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over the last two years concerning the question of how one evaluates whether a trade mark is descriptive. Marks such as BIOMILD, POSTKANTOOR, DOUBLEMINT and BABY-DRY should now trip off the tongue of any trade mark lawyer. One must now add a new mark to that illustrious list, EUROPREMIUM.

On the 12th January 2005, the CFI provided further guidance on the how descriptive a trade mark must be to be denied registration. Article 7(1)(c) of the Community Trade Mark Regulation provides that:

‘trade marks which consist exclusively of signs or indications which may serve, in trade, to designate the kind, quality, quantity, intended purpose, value, geographical origin or time of production of the goods or of rendering of the service, or other characteristics of the goods or service’

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