Very difficult registration of a descriptive trademark
17.05.2018
One of our Clients in the beer industry who sells his products mainly in Hungary has initiated a trademark protection procedure within the European Intellectual Property Office.
The European IP Officers rejected the procedure because the trademark laked distinctiveness and referred to a certain geographical area in Europe. On this criteria, the European IP Office has issued a provisional refusal.
Taking into account their arguments we have formulated the following responses:
First of all, we have demonstrated that our Client’s trademark is distinctive following its intense use and on this issue, we filed evidence that the trademark is known and intensively used through social media and traditional media. Also, we took into consideration the Client’s awards for different products, invoices, vendor lists, and the maps of the areas where the Client sells the products.
Another reason was that the brand name is not associated with its own sense. This is a European trademark and the percentage of Hungarian population is 2%. We were wondering how many Hungarians understand the proper sense of this trademark.
We have conducted a survey at European level, in 5 countries, that demonstrated people did not associate the Hungarian Trademark with a beer product.
Given this arguments, the European IP Office appreciated the merits of the arguments and approved the trademark registration.