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CLASS 46


Now in its twelfth year, Class 46 is dedicated to European trade mark law and practice. This weblog is written by a team of enthusiasts who want to spread the word and share their thoughts with others.

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Who we all are...
Anthonia Ghalamkarizadeh
Birgit Clark
Blog Administrator
Christian Tenkhoff
Fidel Porcuna
Gino Van Roeyen
Markku Tuominen
Niamh Hall
Nikos Prentoulis
Stefan Schröter
Tomasz Rychlicki
Yvonne Onomor
MONDAY, 26 OCTOBER 2009
Greek Supreme Court affirms toothpaste design is not distinctive
Under decision No. 886/2009, the Greek Council of State (the country's supreme administrative court) upheld judgments of the lower courts rejecting Colgate Palmolive's application to register as a trade mark in Greece (in class3) a representation of its toothpaste product, i.e. three parallel curves (two color ones and a white in the middle - unfortunately the device is not available but it looks something like the tiny picture above left). The Greek Trade Marks Administrative Committee, as well as the first instance and appellate administrative courts held that the device is devoid of any distinctive character. The Council of State took the same route and, further, rejected Colgaste's argument that the claimed device is distinctive as it has already been accepted as part of compound "Colgate total & device" trade mark. 

The court's judgment also includes a notable point regarding the crowded field argument. In line with its above  argument, Colgate claimed that the trade mark in question should be accepted as the company owns several other trade marks incorporating similar representations. The Council of State replied that every trade mark is "judged autonomously", citing its earlier jurisprudence in judgment No. 2966/2004. This seems to go against the Greek Office's practice, as ,indeed, the crowded field argument will generally "work" before the Greek Trade Marks Administrative Committee.  

No matter if its design cannot be registered, a toothpaste will help a healthy smile.

 

 

Posted by: Nikos Prentoulis @ 13.23
Tags: Greece, Council of State, supreme court, lack of distinctiveness, crowded field,
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