Product characteristic or feature
If a trademark describes a characteristic or feature of the product, EUIPO will refuse to register it. According to EUIPO, Loved by Cats is nothing more than a promotional message, indicating that cats love the product. Therefore, it is not a distinctive brand, and even the logo with paw prints doesn’t change that. “Feel free to use these brands, but we will not grant them protection,” said EUIPO.
Dozens of brands rejected daily
But Ahold is not alone. Every day, the European registration of many dozens of trademarks is rejected due to lack of distinctiveness. Sometimes the rejection is obvious, but there are also brands that are less easily recognized as non-distinctive. Below are a few recent examples. Some refusals are no-brainers, while others may be a bit more surprising.
No-brainers
For the following trademarks, you could have predicted that registration would be problematic. You might even wonder why these trademark holders spent money on the application at all.
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- BLOSSOM
For cosmetics, the brand BLOSSOM is not distinctive. “Blossom” describes the scent or color of the cosmetics. Registration refused.
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- CEOWORLD MAGAZINE
Well, a magazine for CEOs: trademark refused.
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- WHERE LUXURY IS NOT A LIMIT
For travel and hotels, this descriptive phrase naturally lacks distinctiveness. Registration refused.
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- CRAZY ENERGY DRINK
It’s probably an eye-catching energy drink. No distinctiveness, no registration.
Surprises
However, it’s not always so clear in advance that a trademark can be refused..
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- I LOVE CSRD
A trademark for business and financial consulting. The registration was refused. According to EUIPO, the trademark means “I love Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive,” making it descriptive. I didn’t see that one coming — I wasn’t familiar with the CSRD abbreviation.
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- ROUHEE
There’s nothing wrong with ROUHEE, I would say. A fine brand for fruits, nuts, and grain products. Hmm, not quite. It turns out that ROUHEE means “coarse” or “grainy” in Finnish. And because a European trademark registration must consider all EU languages, this brand was refused for that reason. Coarse and grainy can be characteristics of the product, making the brand non-distinctive. Well, to be fair, I wouldn’t have caught that one! My Finnish isn’t what it used to be.
Conclusion
It’s always important to be cautious with the distinctiveness test in trademark registrations. In most cases, we can predict a refusal quite accurately. However, sometimes we are still surprised by an unexpected meaning in an EU country or by an unfamiliar technical term or abbreviation.
Bas Kist
Banner image by pouchdirect Ausatralia on Unsplash
