A potentially important Spanish case is heading for Luxembourg, for a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). It's Case C-139/16 Moreno Marin and others. The referring court -- the Audiencia Provincial de Burgos -- wants clarification of the criteria for determining whether a sign constitutes an indication of geographic origin (and hence what signs are incapable of registration or liable to be declared invalid) under Article 3(1)(c) of Directive 2008/95.

The questions referred to the CJEU read like this:

1.       May the prohibitions in Article 3(1)(c) of Directive 2008/95 include the use of a sign referring to the characteristic of a product or service which is that it can be found in abundance in a single place with a high degree of value and quality?

2.       May a sign with these characteristics be regarded as a sign of geographical origin in so far as the product or service will always be concentrated in a specific physical area?

If you would like to comment on this case to the UK IPO, please email policy@ipo.gov.uk by this coming Monday, 25 April 2016.