The sequence Biomarkt cannot be registered as an EU trademark. This was decided by the General Court of the European Union (GCEU) in a ruling on July 13, 2022 (Case no.: T?641/21).
Trademark law stipulates that a sign must, among other things, possess sufficient distinctiveness to be registered as a trademark. The GCEU has now decided that the sequence Biomarkt does not possess this distinctiveness and therefore cannot be registered as an EU trademark, explains the law firm MTR Legal. Trademark law is one of the core areas of advice provided by MTR Legal.
In the underlying case, a German company operating a chain of organic markets, among other things, wanted to register the sequence Biomarkt as a word-picture trademark. The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) rejected the registration as an EU trademark due to a lack of necessary distinctiveness.
The GCEU has now confirmed this decision. One of the essential functions of a trademark is that the consumer can identify the commercial origin of the goods or services. To achieve sufficient distinctiveness, the trademark must have something novel or special. This is not the case with the designation Biomarkt, according to the GCEU.
For neither the individual components ‘Bio’ and ‘Markt’ nor their combination exhibit any special feature to distinguish the sequence Biomarkt from the generally prevailing understanding of an organic market, the court further explained. Rather, it has a descriptive character. For the addressed circles, the term Biomarkt has been a concept for years.
Nor did the plaintiff’s argument that the word component Biomarkt is a newly coined word, in contrast to the expression Biosupermarkt, convince the GCEU. The combination of the terms ‘Bio’ and ‘Markt’ is familiar and not suitable to diminish the descriptive character. Especially as these terms also form a comprehensible expression, the GCEU further stated.
According to the GCEU, the term Biomarkt is purely descriptive and therefore not suitable for registration as a trademark.
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