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General Court: Perlé not distinctive for wine
In Case T-104/11, Ferrari F.lli Lunelli SpA (Italy) applied for the protection of the figurative CTM for goods in Class 33 “wines, spirits, liquors, sparkling wines, alcoholic extracts”
The General Court upheld the finding by OHIM that the relevant public was composed of traders and wine consumers, that is of some specialists and the general public, who speak French and English . The expression “perlé wine” belongs to both languages and refers to “slightly sparkling wine”, which is substantially identical to the applied for CTM except for the final apostrophe which is very similar to the French accent “´é”.
Thus the term is descriptive and lacks distinctive character according to Article 7(1) (b) and (c) CTMR for the relevant public. That word is already readily present on Internet and non specialist dictionaries so it will become known soon to the rest of the general public.
Finally , the Applicant did not submit enough evidence of acquired distinctiveness because it filed proof only regarding to UK and France but not for the rest of the relevant French and English speaking jurisdictions, ie: Benelux , Ireland and Malta.
Tags: General court, absolute grounds, perle wine,
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