ECJ Rules Numbers Can be Trade Marks

by Katy Murcutt - Paralegal

10 March 2011, filed under Trademarks

The European Court of Justice has ruled in a recent case that a number can be trade marks provided they are not descriptive.
A Polish publisher has been unable to register the number 1000 as a trade mark for a puzzle book because it described the puzzle book and so the right was refused.

Community Trade Marks, which can cover Member States of the European Union, cannot be made up of purely descriptive characteristics about a product such as their quality or quantity, which would be descriptive.

The reason for this is that brands of a similar nature or with similar features competing with one another should not be restricted from describing their individual products.

Technopol, the Polish publisher, applied to the Office of Harmonisation for a Community Trade Mark for the number 1000 but was refused because it was not distinctive and to descriptive enough to qualify for trade mark protection.

The ECJ ruled that the person buying the puzzle book would read the title of '1000' as meaning that the book contained 1,000 puzzles. If there is a number in a title of a product, it is likely that that number will be descriptive of an amount of items as it relates to that product.

The Courts decision was based on the fact that in this instance, 1000 was indicative of the amount of puzzles contained within the puzzle book itself, which was descriptive and therefore did not fulfil the required criteria.

Community trade marks regulations relate to one or more characteristics of the goods or services in respect of which registration as a mark is sought may be used by all traders offering such goods or services.

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