Portuguese national word mark adegaborba.pt is descriptive

07-12-2018 Print this page
IPPT20181206, CJEU, Portugal Ramos Vinhos v Adega

Trade mark law - adegaborba.pt shall not be registered as a national Portugese word mark based on article 3(1)(c) of Directive 2008/95 regarding signs which consist exclusively of indications which may serve to designate the characteristics of the goods or services: the article pursues an aim that is in the public interest, which requires that signs or indications describing categories of goods or services may be freely used by all, the list of characteristics named in the article is not exhaustive, the Portuguese public will perceive the term “adega” as to be a reference to a facility in which wine is produced and stored and, therefore, as a reference to properties of those goods, the combination of this term and the geographical name ‘‘Borba’ - relating to the geographical origin of those goods-  is descriptive, the fact that a term is part of the corporate name of a legal person is irrelevant for the purposes of examining the descriptive character of that term.

 

IPPT20181206, CJEU, Portugal Ramos Vinhos v Adega

 

C-629/17 - ECLI:EU:C:2018:988