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[sara123]

`by prohibiting the registration as community trade marks of such signs and indications, artcile 7[1] c of regulation no.40/94 pursues an aim which is in the public interest, namely that descriptive or indications relating to the charactersitics of goodsor services in respect of which registration is sought may be freely used by all.
that provision accordingly prevents such sings and indications from being reserved to one undertaking alone because thet have been registered as trade marks`.[per advocate general jacobs in OHIM V WM.WRIGLEY JR.COMPANY[2004] RPC 327 ECJ


What exaclty am i meant to do for this question and does can anyone help me regarding this.

thankyou so much

[JSonnabend]

That appears to be a comment on the EU TM provision regarding merely descriptive marks.  As in the U.S., names which are merely descriptive cannot be registered as trademarks because they cannot function as trademarks.  

- Jeff

[Kidd57]

Sara,
I am not an attorney, but my understanding is this means you cannot Trademark names like New York City
or California, or Mississippi River. If you could then you could keep others from using them for anything else - so they are free for everyone to use, and cannot be trademarked.

If you are looking for a name you can trademark think of something like Sara's Widget Company, that is more likely to receive a trademark. But an attorney can give you better advice than I can.

[Lyza]

Dear Kidd57,

As Jeff Sonnabend and others have said repeatedly on this list, you cannot "trademark" anything.  The term "trademark" is not a process, therefore, not a verb or an action.  You can "register" a trademark that is in use to denote goods or services offered under it, but there is no such process or procedure called "trademarking."  This is a common mistake made when discussing trademark rules.

[JSonnabend]

this means you cannot Trademark names like New York City or California, or Mississippi River

In addition to Lyza's correct points, I'll add that the quote above is incorrect.  Why can't someone use "California" as a trademark.  Couldn't GM come out with a "Chevy California"?  

For what it's worth, a quick TESS search found 7 registered "Mississippi River" tms, about 120 "New York City" (and "NYC") registrations, and more than a 1000 "California" registrations.

- Jeff