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BLOG@IP::JURPatent Attorney Axel H Horns' Blog on Intellectual Property Law.
Thursday, April 27, 2006"FUSSBALL WM 2006" Lacks Distinctiveness, Says German Supreme Court.Today, the German Supreme Court ("Bundesgerichtshof", BGH) has ruled [in German only, sorry] that the word sign "FUSSBALL WM 2006" (the English equivalent thereof would be something like "FOOTBALL W[ORLD] C[HAMPIONSHIP] 2006") is non-registrable as a national German Trade Mark for all of the goods/services because of complete lack of distinctiveness. Another sign, "WM 2006", was considered to be distinctive only for goods and/or services not related, in the view of the related trade circles, to the coming event in Germany.Originally, the German Patent and Trade Mark Office had accepted both marks for approximaltely 850 goods/services as applied for by FIFA. Then, upon multiple cancellation requests based on absolute grounds of non-registrability, the Office had cancelled both marks. FIFA appealed, and the Federal Patents Court ("Bundespatentgericht") had allowed both marks for resgistration but only for a certain subset of the original list of goods/services. But the story was not over. Both FIFA as well as one of the parties to the cancellation proceedings brought the case to the Federal Supreme Court for revising the matter as to the points of law. Now, after the Federal Supreme Court has issued a decision, the "WM 2006" case will again go to the Federal Patents Court in order to find the exact wording of the list of goods and/or services for which this sign is acceptable as a registred mark in Germany. The "FUSSBALL WM 2006" case is terminated; there will be no registration at all. I don't know as to whether or not they will get a final decison of the Patents Court well in advance of the WM event. But - nobody should prematurely assume that now the way is free to make unrestricted use of those "WM 2006"-related signs. There might be co-pending applications and/or registrations elsewhere. Take, for example, the co-pending Community Trade Mark 002155521 "WM 2006". This registration is also subject to cancellation procedures. Technorati Tags: Trade Marks
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