When considering the distinctiveness of a chemical compound merchandise mark, for illustration a sign made upward of letters in addition to numbers, the right approach is to pretend that y'all are the relevant consumer of the goods or services for which the applicant seeks registration of the seat in addition to and so to consider the merchandise seat equally a whole. There's zip to live gained, therefore, from "salami-slicing" the sign upward into its factor parts in addition to and so ruling that each of those parts, past times itself, is non-distinctive in addition to and so lastly that the whole seat can't live to a greater extent than distinctive than the amount of its parts. That's the moral of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling lastly Th inwards Case 329/02 SAT.1 Satellitenfernsehen GmbH v OHIM.
The applicant's seat inwards this case, SAT.2, was sought for satellite in addition to satellite broadcasting services. OHIM and the Court of First Instance (CFI) refused registration on the footing that "Sat" was curt for satellite, "2" was a issue used inwards the presentation of such services in addition to ".", beingness merely a punctuation mark, had no distinctive graphic symbol at all. The ECJ disagreed, emphasising that
* there is no presumption that elements which are individually devoid of distinctive graphic symbol cannot, on beingness combined, live perceived past times the relevant consumer equally beingness distinctive.
* there is no specific seat of linguistic or artistic inventiveness or imaginativeness that must live shown earlier a merchandise seat tin live registered. It's plenty for a seat to enable the relevant populace to set the root of the goods or services in addition to to distinguish them from those of other undertakings.
* the frequent use of merchandise marks consisting of a discussion in addition to a issue inwards the telecommunication sector showed that such a combination cannot live considered to live devoid, inwards principle, of distinctive character.
is thrilled amongst this decision, reminding readers that the CFI's judgment was vigorously criticised past times Jeremy Phillips inwards his book, Trade Mark Law: a Practical Anatomy, published lastly twelvemonth past times Oxford University Press.
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