The sequence Biomarkt cannot be registered as a Union trademark. The General Court of the European Union (GCEU) decided this with a judgment on July 13, 2022 (Case No. T?641/21).
Trademark law stipulates that a sign, among other things, must have sufficient distinctiveness in order 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 a Union trademark, explains the law firm MTR Rechtsanwälte. Trademark law is one of the areas of expertise for MTR Rechtsanwälte.
In the underlying case, a German company that, among other things, operates an organic supermarket chain wanted to register the sequence Biomarkt as a word-figurative mark. The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) refused the registration as a Union trademark because it lacked the 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 good or service. In order to achieve sufficient distinctiveness, the trademark must have something novel or special. However, this is not the case with the designation Biomarkt, according to the GCEU.
For neither the individual word components “Bio” and “Markt” nor their combination exhibit a special feature that sets the sequence Biomarkt apart from the generally prevailing understanding of an organic market, the court further elaborated. Rather, it has a descriptive character. For the addressed public, the designation Biomarkt has been a known term for years.
The GCEU was also not swayed by the plaintiff’s argument that the word component Biomarkt, as opposed to the expression Biosupermarkt, is a neologism. The combination of the terms “Bio” and “Markt” is common and not suitable to diminish the descriptive character. Furthermore, these terms form an understandable expression, the GCEU further elaborated.
According to the GCEU, the term Biomarkt is purely descriptive and therefore not suitable for registration as a trademark.
An attorney experienced in trademark law advises clients of MTR Rechtsanwälte on the legally secure registration of a trademark and all other trademark law issues.
