Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Community trade mark – Definition and acquisition of the Community trade mark – Absolute grounds for refusal – Trade marks consisting exclusively of signs or indications which may serve to designate the characteristics of a product – Sign capable of bearing multiple meanings – Refusal to register where descriptiveness of at least one of the potential meanings exists

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

2. Community trade mark – Definition and acquisition of the Community trade mark – Absolute grounds for refusal – Trade marks consisting exclusively of signs or indications which may serve, in trade, to designate the characteristics of a product – Word mark QUICK-GRIP

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

Summary

1. A sign must be refused registration under Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation No 40/94 on the Community trade mark if at least one of its possible meanings designates a characteristic of the goods and services concerned (by the application for registration).

(see para. 32)

2. The word sign QUICK-GRIP, in respect of which registration was sought for goods falling within Class 8 of the Nice Agreement concerning hand tools and including clamps and the parts and fittings for such goods, is ineligible for registration as a Community trade mark. The link between that sign and the products referred to is sufficiently close for the sign to fall within the scope of the prohibition laid down by Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation No 40/94 in that the sign enables the relevant public, which is the average English-speaking consumer in the Community, to ascertain immediately and without further reflection that the goods concerned grip easily and speedily, and therefore the choice of the words ‘quick’ and ‘grip’ by no means requires a leap of imagination or arbitrary decision on the part of the consumer.

(see paras 27, 31, 33-34)