Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[ipplanet]

The European Court issued a decision in Case T-281/09 concerning the refusal of OHIM to register an word CTM CHROMA for Class 11 - sanitary ceramic products.
The refusal is based on absolute grounds since the word CHROMA is a translation in Latin letters of the word 'χρώμα' which in Greek means color. Therefore this term is descriptive about the characteristics of the goods in Class 11.
The European Court upheld the decision of OHIM, giving the following arguments:

37 Although the applicant states that a colour is a type or category of characteristics and not ‘a’ characteristic, the fact remains that, according to the standard meanings of the word ‘colour’, it refers to the use of colours other than black and white or to the presence of a large range of colours.

38 Secondly, as the Board of Appeal correctly pointed out in paragraphs 31 and 32 of the contested decision, as regards sanitary appliances, the traditional colour of which is white, and building materials, not of metal, which include bathroom ceramics, the indication of the fact that they are available in various colours is a characteristic which is likely to be relevant in trade.

39 The use of the word ‘colour’ thus conveys a message which is capable of being grasped immediately by the consumer concerned as it indicates that there is a range of goods in various colours, in particular, as regards ceramic sanitary appliances and ceramic building materials for bathrooms, in colours other than traditional white. Furthermore, the goods at issue are likely to be requested on the basis of the range of colours in which they come, with a view to matching them in decorative creations.

41 It follows from those considerations that the Board of Appeal was right to find that, from the point of view of the relevant Greek-speaking consumer, the sign CHROMA could serve to indicate that the goods concerned in Classes 11 and 19 were available in various colours and that it therefore designated a relevant characteristic in terms of the marketing of the goods in question.
http://intellectualpropertyplanet.blogspot.com/2011/01/chroma-can-not-be-european-trademark.html

[Isaac]

I find these posts very enlightening.  I think you are doing a good job of picking interesting cases.

[JSonnabend]

I find these posts very enlightening.  I think you are doing a good job of picking interesting cases.

I find the posts overwhelming.  If there were one or two posts a week on interesting topics, great, but IPPlanet seems to take a shotgun approach.  Post a lot an hope someone finds something interesting.

- Jeff

[Isaac]

I find the posts overwhelming.  If there were one or two posts a week on interesting topics, great, but IPPlanet seems to take a shotgun approach.

I see about one of these every day or so, and I don't look at them unless the title suggests something interesting.

[Kaitlin]

I appreciate the posts also, but was wondering if there couldn't be established another TM forum section for posts devoted to interesting decisions and updates in TM law. 

[JSonnabend]

Kaitlin, I've toyed with the idea of moving them to the "News" forum, but they are TM related, so I have left them.  I try to be as minimally invasive in moderating as is reasonable.

- Jeff