22 juni: EG-Hof ontzegt oorspronkelijkheid aan 'Werther's echte'
Nieuwsbericht | 22-06-2006
PRESS RELEASE No 51/06
22 June 2006
Judgments of the Court of Justice in Cases C-24/05 P and C-25/05 P
August Storck KG v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM)
The Court dismisses the appeals brought by Storck against the judgments of the Court of First Instance rejecting the actions brought against the decisions of OHIM refusing to register as Community trade marks two marks relating to Werther's original sweets
The grounds of appeal relied on by Storck in support of its appeals are partly inadmissible and partly unfounded
The company August Storck requested the Court of Justice of the European Communities to set aside the judgments of the Court of First Instance of 10 November 2004 [1] by which the latter dismissed the actions seeking annulment of two decisions of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) refusing to register as Community trade marks two marks relating to 'Werther's Original' sweets. The first of the marks is a threedimensional shape representing a light-brown sweet. The second is the representation in perspective of the shape of a sweet wrapper with twisted ends.
In the judgments under appeal, the Court of First Instance held that the shapes in dispute cannot be sufficiently distinguished from other shapes commonly used for sweets and will therefore not enable consumers to distinguish them from those of another commercial origin.
The Court of Justice rejects Storck's arguments that the Court of First Instance erred in law in finding that the shape of the sweet in question is not substantially different from certain basic shapes commonly used, in trade, for such products. In basing its decision on the finding that the mark applied for does not enable the relevant public immediately and with certainty to distinguish the applicant's sweets from those of another commercial origin, the Court of First Instance established to the requisite legal standard that the mark applied for does not depart significantly from the norm or customs of the confectionery sector.
As regards the mark consisting of the shape of a sweet wrapper with twisted ends, the Court of Justice finds that the Court of First Instance also established to the requisite legal standard that the mark applied for does not depart significantly from the norm or customs of the confectionery sector.
The Court of Justice therefore dismisses the appeals.
[1] Case T-396/02 and Case T-402/02 Storck v OHIM, not yet published in the ECR.
