TRADEMARK LAW
Protection of State emblems
• Protection of State emblems is not subject to there being a connection, in the mind of the public, between the trade mark for which registration is sought and the emblem
• Thus, a trade mark which does not exactly reproduce a State emblem can nevertheless be covered by Article 6ter(1)(a) of the Paris Convention, where it is perceived by the relevant public, in the present case the average consumer, as imitating such an emblem.
• The Court of First Instance therefore did not err in law by holding that a number of artistic interpretations of one and the same emblem on the basis of the same heraldic description were possible.
Trade marks for goods and service marks
• Article 6ter leaves the extension of the protection guaranteed to trade marks for goods to service marks to the discretion of the States
• Registration of a trade mark must be refused, whether the application concerns goods or services, where one of the grounds for refusal listed in Article 6ter of the Paris Convention applies to it.
IPPT20090716, ECJ, American Clothing v OHIM
