Bringin together services may come withing the concept of 'services' ex art. 2 Trade Marks Directive

TRADE MARK LAW

Bringing together services so that the consumer can conveniently compare and purchase them may come within the concept of ‘services’ ex art. 2 Trade Marks Directive
 

"40. In the light of all the foregoing, the answer to the first question is that the provision of services by an economic operator which consist in bringing together services so that the consumer can conveniently compare and purchase them may come within the concept of ‘services’ referred to in Article 2 of Directive 2008/95."

Formulation of trade mark application for service of the bringing together must be clear and precise so as to allow the competent authorities and other economic operators to know which services the applicant intends to bring together
 

"52. Subject to verification by the referring court, that application does not ostensibly specify whether, by citing the entire heading of Class 35 of the Nice Classification, the applicant in the main proceedings seeks protection by that trade mark for the bringing together of all the services included in the alphabetical list of that class or solely of some of those services. In the light of the existence of different approaches within the European Union regarding the way in which the use of a Nice Classification class heading must be understood, an application which does not make it possible to establish whether, by using a particular class heading, the applicant intends to cover all or only some of the goods or services thereof could not be considered sufficiently clear and precise (Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys EU:C:2012:361, paragraphs 58, 59 and 62).
53. In the light of all the foregoing, the answer to the second question is that Directive 2008/95 must be interpreted as meaning that it requires an application for registration of a trade mark with respect to a service which consists of bringing together services to be formulated with sufficient clarity and precision so as to allow the competent authorities and other economic operators to know which services the applicant intends to bring together."

IPPT20140710, CJEU, Netto Marken-Discount v Patent Markemant

C420/13 - ECLI:EU:C:2014:2069