Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Community trade mark - Definition and acquisition of the Community trade mark - Absolute grounds for refusal - Trade marks which consist exclusively of signs or indications which may serve to designate the characteristics of a product - Term VITALITE

(Council Regulation No 40/94, Art. 7(1)(c))

Summary

1. Under Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation No 40/94 on the Community trade mark, trade marks which consist exclusively of signs or indications which may serve, in trade, to designate the ... intended purpose ... of the goods are not to be registered. As regards, in that respect, the registration of the term VITALITE sought for certain goods having a specific medical, nutritional or dietetic purpose and for food for babies and mineral and aerated waters, that term, even if it is read in French as vitalité, cannot be regarded as being able to serve to designate the intended purpose of food for babies or mineral and aerated waters. The word vitalité does not directly and immediately inform the consumer of one of the characteristics of food for babies or mineral and aerated waters. Consequently, the link between the meaning of the word vitalité, on the one hand, and the goods in question, on the other, does not seem to be sufficiently close to be caught by the prohibition laid down in Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation No 40/94. In fact it is a case of evocation and not designation for the purposes of that provision. Accordingly, registration of the term VITALITE cannot be refused, pursuant to the abovementioned provision, in respect of food for babies or mineral and aerated waters, unlike all the other goods, which all have a specific medical, nutritional or dietetic purpose.

( see paras 18, 21, 24-25 )

2. Registrations of trade marks already made in Member States are only one factor which, without being given decisive weight, may merely be taken into consideration for the purposes of registering a Community trade mark.

( see para. 33 )