New case at horizon: generic trademark or not?-

08.05.2019

In the coming months we will have a case related to a supposed generic name of a Swiss traditional bread producer’s brand. The problem lies in the refusal of the German office to register that trademark based on the fact that the name of the trademarks is generic.

We consider this refusal difficult to understand, given that more than 95% of the offices to which the application for registration of the trademark was filed did not raise this issue. However, we will mobilize and prepare to show that all of the information invoked by the examiner in support of the refusal, in particular the results arising from searches made on Google, are linked to our contractual partners who have full rights to use the respective trademark. Therefore, it cannot be a generic name, being used in the online environment by legitimate entities who do not dispose of it because it belongs to the public domain and is widely spread.

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