In the online magazine World Trademark Review Daily from 18/07/2014, BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT partner and trademark law expert Dr Florian Schwab reports on the recent decision of the European Court of Justice (Ref.: C-126/13 P) from 10 July 2014. (Article “ECJ confirms that mark descriptive of component can be descriptive of product itself.”). The highest European court confirmed judgements from lower courts by rejecting the trademark registration ECODOOR of BSH Bosch and Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH as community mark at the European Office for Harmonisation. Among other things, the Court viewed the trademark as merely descriptive and therefore not capable of registration. For the descriptive character, the Court found it sufficient that the relevant consumer group would view the presentation of the corresponding appliance with an “environmentally-friendly door as a description of the environmental friendliness of the corresponding product as a whole.”
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